PSX falls below 29,000 points: BRIndex100 bleeds

Pakistan Stock Exchange Tuesday witnessed a freefall right after the opening in the first trading session after the lockdown. With an eventual slump in stock prices, all the scrips hit lower circuit breakers. The 7th market halt, which lasted for 2 hours and the further shortened market timings failed to make any change and the market closed with huge losses.
The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) had announced Monday evening to reduce trading timings of Pakistan Stock Exchange from six to four hours and extended the market halt period from 45 minutes to 120 minutes (2 hours).
BRIndex100 eroded 237.76 points or 7.61 percent to close at 2,887.68 points. BRIndex100 touched intraday high of 3,125.44 and intraday low of 2,886.57 points. Volumes stood at 93.670 million shares.
BRIndex30 declined by 1207.32 points or 7.82 percent to close at 14,231.79 points with total daily turnover of 78.177 million shares. The KSE-100 Index plunged by 2,102.58 points or 6.86 percent to close at 28,564.83 points. Due to lockdown announced by the Sindh government, trading activity remained very thin as daily volumes on the ready counter decreased to 98.788 million shares as compared to 244.998 million shares traded in previous session.
The market capitalization declined by Rs 323 billion to stand at Rs 5.584 trillion. Out of total 285 active scrips, 253 closed in negative, only 24 in positive while the value of 8 stocks remained unchanged.
K-Electric was the volume leader with 25.596 million shares. However, it lost Re 0.34 to close at Rs 2.65 followed by Unity Foods that declined by Re 0.82 to close at Rs 7.89 with 11.911 million shares. Bata Pak and Sapphire Textile were the top gainers with Rs 47.87 and Rs 33.35, respectively to close at Rs 1,408.58 and Rs 809.99. Colgate Palmolive and Philip Morris Pak were the top losers with Rs 162.79 and Rs 145.54, respectively to close at Rs 2,007.87 and Rs 1,795.11.
BR Automobile Assembler Index declined by 309.91 points or 6.68 percent to close at 4,329.43 points with total turnover of 356,090 shares. BR Cement Index decreased by 239.61 points or 7.45 percent to close at 2,977.90 points with 5.356 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index plunged by 532.43 points or 7.51 percent to close at 6,560.47 points with 14.681 million shares. BR Power Generation and Distribution Index shed 284.22 points or 7.37 percent to close at 3,574.40 points with 27.426 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index fell by 221.43 points or 7.33 percent to close at 2,799.38 points with 14.467 million shares. BR Tech. & Comm. Index eroded 54.99 points or 7.98 percent to close at 634.45 points with 1.876 million shares. An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the first session in lockdown saw a wait-and-see stance at large from investors and an eventual slump in stock prices to lower circuit breakers.
The market witnessed the 7th halt, which lasted for 2 hours, and further shortened the already reduced market timings. Post halt, index continued trending down and saw the plunge going deeper by the end of the session to 2,100 points.
All hopes of the government 'incentive'/'bailout' package for the industry and masses went in vain amid a possibility of countrywide lockdown or curfew to be imposed by the government.
A slight rebound in international crude prices kept the interest in E&P stocks alive, resultantly, OGDC, PPL and POL traded above lower circuits. Power sector realized the most trading volume with 27.4 million shares, followed by Banks (14.7 million shares) and Vanaspati (11.9 million shares).
Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (down 602 points), Fertilizer (down 320 points), E&P (down 280 points), Cement (down 167 points) and Power (down 150 points).
Stocks that contributed positively to the index include PAKT (up 4 points) and IGIHL (up 2 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include ENGRO (down 146 points), HBL (down 140 points), HUBC (down 108 points), MCB (down 105 points) and FFC (down 104 points).