Volume record tumbles again at PSX

Trading activity continued to break records on Thursday as the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) registered the highest single-day volume for the second successive session.

This comes a day after the PSX recorded the highest single-day volume on Wednesday, when it saw 1.56 billion shares changing hands.

However, that record was short-lived as investors recorded a volume of 2.22 billion on Thursday as the KSE-100 Index succumbed to profit-booking and saw a retreat from the 47,000-point barrier.

On Thursday, the KSE-100 Index, widely considered a benchmark for market performance, retreated 21.56 points to settle at 46,790.75. However, volumes continued to increase as the index touched a high of over 47,200 in intra-day trading.

Daily volume increased 41% day-on-day, and beat the the previous record of 1.56 billion.

Almost half the volumes were driven by penny stocks, including WorldCall Telecom. The scrip, which finished Rs0.02 higher, was the volume leader with 950.27 million shares, followed by Hum Network that increased by Rs0.38 to finish at Rs8.19 with 172.481 million shares. Silk Bank and Byco Petroleum were third and fourth on the list with over 126 million and 123 million shares traded, respectively.

“Containment of Covid-19, corporate results, government policies and initiatives have built investor confidence & positive sentiment driving historic performance,” said Farrukh H Khan, Chief Executive Officer at the PSX.

Topline Securities CEO Mohammad Sohail, however, was quick to point that penny stocks drove the record volume. “WorldCall or WorldRecord? 950mn traded 1599mn free float, 1806mn total shares. High volume is good. But abnormal volume is not. Point to ponder,” said Sohail in a tweet post.

Sectors wiping the gains of KSE-100 included fertilizer (28.71 points), tobacco (20.98 points) and automobile assembling (19.35 points).