PSX witnesses bloodbath

KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Monday witnessed a bloodbath over prevailing political uncertainty in the country, experts said.

The market opened in the negative zone and remained under pressure throughout the day as investors opted for panic selling due to rupee devaluation against USD, they added.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index plunged by 707.80 points or 1.68 percent and closed below 42,000 psychological level at 41,367.11 points. The index hit 41,274.62 points intraday low level.

The daily trading volumes on ready counter stood at 151.351 million shares as compared to 140.118 million shares traded on previous session while total daily traded value on ready counter declined to Rs 4.357 billion against previous session’s Rs 5.374 billion.

BRIndex100 decreased by 91.76 points or 2.19 percent to close at 4,096.70 points with total daily turnover of 130.756 million shares.

BRIndex30 declined by 360.28 points or 2.34 percent to close at 15,018.56 points with total daily trading volumes of 94.854 million shares.

Foreign investors however remained net buyers of shares worth $424,471. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 99 billion to Rs 6.945 trillion. Out of total 326 active scrips, 253 closed in negative and only 55 in positive while the value of 18 stocks remained unchanged.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 12.730 million shares however lost Rs 0.07 to close at Rs 1.36 followed by K-Electric that closed at Rs 3.05, down Rs 0.03 with 10.311 million shares. TPL Properties declined by Rs 0.84 to close at Rs 19.36 with 8.299 million shares.

Allawasaya Textile and Premium Textile were the top gainers increasing by Rs 162.38 and Rs 20.00 respectively to close at Rs 2,350.00 and Rs 849.99 while Rafhan Maize and Mehmood Textile were the top losers declining by Rs 150.00 and Rs 45.00 respectively to close at Rs 9,800.00 and Rs 755.00.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the benchmark KSE-100 Index witnessed a bloodbath session over prevailing political uncertainty in the country. The market opened in the negative zone and remained under pressure throughout the day as investors opted for panic selling due to rupee devaluation against USD. The main board volumes remained dull although hefty volumes were observed in the 3rd tier stocks.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (down 127.6 points), Cement (down 106.6 points), Fertilizer (down 106.2 points), E&P (down 69.1 points) and Technology (down 67.9 points).

BR Automobile Assembler Index decreased by 66.22 points or 0.68 percent to close at 9,718.26 points with total turnover of 963,247 million shares.

BR Cement Index plunged by 138.46 points or 3.4 percent to close at 3,931.53 points with 7.602 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index fell by 131.62 points or 1.5 percent to close at 8,617.32 points with 6.745 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index declined by 116.26 points or 2.04 percent to close at 5,579.13 points with 17.410 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index lost 57.03 points or 1.46 percent to close at 3,845.98 points with 11.636 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 3,340.08 points, down 93.49 points or 2.72 percent with 26.555 million shares.

Mubashir Anis Naviwala at JS Global Capital said that the market remained under pressure throughout the day due to rising political uncertainty and macroeconomic worries.

Selling was witnessed across-the-board and benchmark KSE-100 closed at 41,367, losing 708 points compared to the previous trading session. Traded volume stood at 151 million shares where WTL (down 4.9 percent), KEL (down 1.0 percent), TPLP (down 4.2 percent), PRL (down 4.5 percent) and CNERGY (down 2.4 percent) were the highest contributors.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022