KSE-100 Index nosedives: BRIndex100 plummets

Pakistan Stock Exchange Monday witnessed a bearish trend as investors remained on the selling side due to their concerns over coronavirus spread.

BRIndex100 lost 115.86 points or 3.51 percent to close at 3,184.21 points. BRIndex100 touched intraday high of 3,300.07 and intraday low of 3,172.04 points. Volumes stood at 145.348 million shares.

BRIndex30 decreased by 695.73 points or 4.15 percent to close at 16,070.80 points with a turnover of 114.814 million shares. The KSE-100 Index declined by 1,000.22 points or 3.12 percent to close at 31,032.99 points. Daily trading volumes slightly increased to 153.875 million shares as compared 127.065 million shares traded last Friday.

Foreign investors remained on the selling side and withdrew $1.3 million. The market capitalization declined by Rs 157 billion to Rs 5.898 trillion. Out of total 338 active scrips, 270 closed in negative, only 47 in positive while the value of 21 stocks remained unchanged.

Hascol Petroleum was the volume leader with 16.966 million shares however lost Rs 0.30 to close at Rs 14.85 followed by Maple Leaf that declined by Rs 1.64 to close at Rs 12.698 with 12.698 million shares. Sapphire Fiber and Indus Dyeing were the top gainers increasing by Rs 45.41 and Rs 43.81 respectively to close at Rs 681.00 and Rs 641.00 while Nestle Pakistan and Bata Pak were the top losers declining by Rs 426.50 and Rs 44.00 respectively to close at Rs 6163.50 and Rs 1515.00.

BR Automobile Assembler Index declined by 128.39 points or 2.75 percent to close at 4,532.80 points with total turnover of 673,580 shares.

BR Cement Index decreased by 156.18 points or 4.19 percent to close at 3,575.05 points with 39.719 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index plunged by 229.67 points or 3.22 percent to close at 6,910.69 points with 13.012 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index fell by 299.22 points or 6.67 percent to close at 4,188.02 points with 14.048 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index lost 93.42 points or 2.89 percent to close at 3,141.05 points with 30.614 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 774.46 points, down 10.22 points or 1.3 percent with 12.854 million shares.

Danish Ladhani at JS Global Capital said that the stock market opened on a negative note this morning and made an intraday low of negative 1,105 points before closing at 31,033 levels, down 3.1 percent.

Overall, the market remained bearish with slightly better volumes but limited participation. On the economic front, the Planning Commission estimates that the ongoing coronavirus pandemic could force GDP growth to slow down by 0.8 to 1.3 percentage points to 2-2.5 percent this year. Moreover, as per the World Bank, Pakistan may fall into a recession shrinking up to 2.2 percent due to the ongoing novel Coronavirus.

ENGRO (down 2.9 percent), HBL (down 2.8 percent), HUBC (down 7.5 percent), FFC (down 1.6 percent), MCB (down 1.6 percent), OGDC (down 1.2 percent), PPL (down 2.8 percent), UBL (down 4.3 percent) and LUCK (down 3.2 percent), all contributed to the negative index close.