The benchmark KSE-100 index plunged by 5.01 percent on Wednesday, due to panic selling after the Supreme Court's decision to disqualify Sharif Brothers from contesting elections. The market participants, fearing agitation and political uncertainty in the country preferred to offload their holdings on the available margins.
A dull trading activity was witnessed at the opening of the market as the investors were opting cautious stance and the index was moving both ways. Just after the Supreme Court's decision to disqualify Sharif Brothers, the market witnessed panic selling and the index hit 5,571.40 points intra-day low level. Finally the index closed at 5,580.78 points level, with a net loss of 294.05 points.
Trading volume at the ready counter declined to 145.423 million shares as compared to 135.553 million shares traded a day earlier. The overall market capitalisation declined by Rs 87 billion to Rs 1.742 trillion. The bears took complete control as out of the total 274 active stocks, 248 closed in the negative and only 23 in the positive while the value of three stocks remained unchanged.
The E&P giant, OGDC was the volume leader of the day with 22.238 million shares and lost Rs 2.85 to close at Rs 54.24. NIB Bank declined by Re. 0.66 to close at Rs 4.15 with 10.418 million shares. Hub Power decreased by Re. 0.43 to close at Rs 16.48 with 8.481 million shares. TRG Pakistan closed at Rs 1.48, down by Re. 0.23 with 7.113 million shares.
PTCL lost Re. 1.00 to close at Rs 14.34 with 6.508 million shares. Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim declined by Re. 1.00 to close at Rs 16.53 with 4.165 million shares. WorldCall Telecom decreased by Re. 0.43 to close at Rs 2.24 with 3.837 million shares. Jahangir Siddiqui Co closed at Rs 29.38, down by Rs 1.54 with 3.806 million shares.
Bank Al Falah lost Re. 1.00 to close at Rs 12.05 with 3.624 million shares. Bank Al Falah (R) declined by Re. 1.00 to close at Rs 1.27 with 3.553 million shares. Gatron Industries and Central Insurance were the highest gainers and gained Rs 2.51 and Rs 1.91 to close at Rs 52.71 and Rs 48.90 respectively while Nestle Pakistan and Rafhan Maize were the worst losers and lost Rs 44.23 and Rs 35.00 to close at Rs 840.47 and Rs 1360.00 respectively.
Hasnain Asghar Ali at Aziz Fidahusein Co said that a lackluster activity never allowed the actively traded OGDC to invite follow-up buying, thus restricting the gains to 77 points. Dull activity was seen as an escape from the sudden political change. The panic selling, mainly due to the absence of aggressive buyers on dips, led to price erosion that in turn invited float from almost all quarters.
Within no time the index registered an adjustment of 5.1 percent, thus endorsing the view that local bourses are shallow where followers are large in numbers against the initiators. Cautious value buying on extreme lows in the main board stocks did allow the offer volumes to reduce, while despite value temptation the traders had to wait mainly due to the absence of leverage tool, thus offering no resistance to the eligible market operators.
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