KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange on Monday remained under severe pressure and closed deep in the red with heavy losses due to panic selling on investor concern over prevailing political and law and order situation in the country.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index plunged by 1,578.70 points or 1.97 percent and closed at 78,539.19 points. The index hit 78,404.76 points intraday low, however slightly recovered due to fresh buying in some stocks.
Trading activity remained low as daily volumes on ready counter declined to 375.599 million shares as compared to 479.00 million shares traded last Friday. The daily traded value on the ready counter declined to Rs 19.350 billion against previous session’s Rs 27.851 million shares.
BRIndex100 decreased by 168.12 points or 1.99 percent to close at 8,290.28 points with total daily turnover of 312.476 million shares.
BRIndex30 declined by 746.02 points or 2.79 percent to close at 26,011.93 points with daily trading volumes of 188.698 million shares.
Foreign investors however remained net buyers of shares worth $3.745 million. The market capitalization declined by Rs 206 billion to Rs 10.456 trillion. Out of total 446 active scrips, 319 closed in negative and only 80 in positive while the value of 47 stocks remained unchanged.
K-Electric was the volume leader with 33.441 million shares however lost Rs 0.12 to close at Rs 4.41 followed by Pak Elektron that gained Rs 0.21 to close at Rs 26.59 with 23.559 million shares. PIA Holding Company declined by Rs 1.57 to close at Rs 17.02 with 19.205 million shares.
JDW Sugar Mills and Sapphire Textile Mills were the top gainers increasing by Rs 26.51 and Rs 12.72, respectively to close at Rs 544.99 and Rs 1,369.92 while Ismail Industries and Unilever Pakistan Foods were the top losers declining by Rs 161.93 and Rs 134.07 respectively to close at Rs 1,469.57 and Rs 18,125.92.
“Continuing its last week’s trend, Pakistan equities resumed the week on a negative note,” an analyst at Topline Securities said. The KSE-100 Index hung around the bearish zone through-out the trading hours and called the day at 78,539 levels, a loss of 1,579 points (down 1.97 percent).
Uncertain vibes from the political landscape, continuous institutional selling and first day selling of roll-over week can be accredited for the selling spree.
During the day, blue-chip stocks like HUBC, ENGRO, FFC, OGDC and PPL contributed negatively by losing 495 points, cumulatively. On the other hand, SNGP, HBL and AVN saw some buying interest as they added 44 points.
BR Automobile Assembler Index declined by 234.12 points or 1.28 percent to close at 18,059.05 points with total turnover of 9.702 million shares.
BR Cement Index fell by 151.82 points or 1.92 percent to close at 7,769.58 points with 19.223 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index declined by 363.9 points or 1.59 percent to close at 22,541.36 points with 42.165 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index plunged by 559.98 points or 2.95 percent to close at 18,396.72 points with 45.717 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index eroded 142.95 points or 2.11 percent to close at 6,626.35 points with 32.392 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index lost 60.75 points or 1.47 percent to close at 4,073.61 points with 56.738 million shares.
Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said stocks fell sharply on political uncertainty after the government decision to ban opposition limiting government constitutional powers.
He said panic selling in the earnings season on prevailing political noise, uncertainty over settlement of China IPPs dues and concerns for security unrest in the country played a catalytic role in bearish close.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
Comments
Comments are closed.