PSX ends in deep red: BRIndex100 plummets

Pakistan Stock Exchange Monday opened on a positive note, however lost this momentum and closed in deep red due to panic selling on investor concern over rising number of coronavirus patients and slowing down economic activities.
BRIndex100 lost 124.07 points or 3.81 percent to close at 3,133.55 points. BRIndex100 touched intraday high of 3,296.28 and intraday low of 3,125.34 points. Volumes stood at 219.663 million shares.
BRIndex30 declined by 606.16 points or 3.72 percent to close at 15,696.47 points with a turnover of 170.000 million shares.
The KSE-100 Index plunged by 1,042.64 points or 3.30 percent to close at 30,579.15 points. Trading activity also remained low as daily volumes on the ready counter decreased to 233.329 million shares as compared to 251.874 million shares traded last Friday.
The market capitalization declined by Rs 133 billion to stand at Rs 5.883 trillion. Out of total 339 active scrips, 278 closed in negative and only 47 in positive while the value of 14 stocks remained unchanged.
Maple Leaf was the volume leader with 23.037 million shares however lost Rs 1.76 to close at Rs 22.25 followed by Hascol Petroleum that gained Rs 0.07 to close at Rs 13.85 with 20.174 million shares. Pak Tobacco and Sapphire Fiber were the top gainers increasing by Rs 79.00 and Rs 38.69 respectively to close at Rs 1677.00 and Rs 554.69 while Colgate Palmolive and Sapphire Textile were the top losers declining by Rs 98.99 and Rs 63.30 respectively to close at Rs 1901.00 and Rs 782.00.
BR Automobile Assembler Index decreased by 155.89 points or 3.32 percent to close at 4,539.27 points with total turnover of 1.106 million shares.
BR Cement Index declined by 175.39 points or 4.82 percent to close at 3,459.64 points with 71.628 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index plunged by 264.5 points or 3.71 percent to close at 6,866.00 points with 20.147 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index shed 186.82 points or 4.22 percent to close at 4,238.86 points with 21.774 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index fell by 64.35 points or 2.05 percent to close at 3,076.60 points with 42.668 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 709.53 points, down 36.37 points or 4.88 percent with 10.150 million shares.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market opened on a positive note with plus 294 points and 6.1 million shares traded at the opening bell, however, it lost the momentum that was observed on last trading day on Friday, when the market went up.
Selling pressure kept increasing and brought the index down by 1119 points during the session, ending at negative 1043 points.
Selling pressure was seen almost across the board. E&P stocks held some ground and showed decent volumes in range bound activity.
Cement sector led the volumes with 71.6 million shares, followed by O&GMCs (25.4 million shares) and Power (21.7 million shares).
Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (down 297 points), Fertilizer (down 143 points), Cement (down 121 points), Power (down 93 points) and O&GMCs (down 62 points).
Stocks that contributed positively to the index include OGDC (up 33 points), PAKT (up 22 points), BAHL (up 10 points), JLICL (up 6 points) and SCBPL (up 4 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include HBL (down 80 points), MCB (down 71 points), HUBC (down 62 points), ENGRO (down 57 points) and UBL (down 56 points).