KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Thursday nosedived due to panic selling on investor concerns over increasing incidence of Corona cases, partial lockdown, lockdowns in European countries, end of roll-over week, end of result season and global sell-off in stocks as well as commodities markets, analysts said.

BRIndex100 decreased by 151.53 points or 3.53 percent to close at 4,137.14 points. BRIndex100 hit intraday high of 4,267.25 and intraday low of 4,070.29 points. Volumes stood at 508.323 million shares.

BRIndex30 declined by 816.25 points or 3.73 percent to close at 21,061.66 points with a turnover of 370.215 million shares.

The KSE-100 Index plunged by 1,298.86 points or 3.15 percent to close below 40,000 level at 39,888.00 points. Daily trading volumes increased to 541.779 million shares as compared to 368.423 million shares traded Thursday.

Foreign investors also remained on selling side and withdrew $5.502 million from Pakistan capital market. The market capitalization declined by Rs 210 billion to Rs 7.399 trillion. Out of total 422 active scrips, 368 closed in negative and only 47 in positive while the value of 7 stocks remained unchanged.

Unity Foods was the volume leader with 60.515 million shares however lost Rs 0.27 to close at Rs 22.90 followed by Maple Leaf that closed at Rs 42.27, down Rs 0.36 with 39.112 million shares. Sapphire Textile and Pak Tobacco were the top gainers increasing by Rs 43.13 and Rs 42.36 respectively to close at Rs 823.25 and Rs 1650.00 while Unilever Foods and Bata Pak were the top losers declining by Rs 1000.00 and Rs 111.25 respectively to close at Rs 12900.00 and Rs 1588.75.

BR Automobile Assembler Index declined by 189.27 points or 2.36 percent to close at 7,817.29 points with total turnover of 5.588 million shares.

BR Cement Index decreased by 162.37 points or 2.64 percent to close at 5,982.86 points with 109.835 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index plunged by 217.52 points or 2.6 percent to close at 8,132.66 points with 38.819 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index fell by 161.15 points or 3.16 percent to close at 4,932.05 points with 32.256 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index lost 171.95 points or 4.54 percent to close at 3,615.17 points with 52.767 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 1,741.27 points, down 93.49 points or 5.1 percent with 37.240 million shares.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that increasing incidence of Corona cases, partial lockdown in Pakistan, lockdowns in European countries, end of roll-over week, end of result season and global sell-off in stocks as well as commodities markets were enough for the market to lose 1,911 points during the session. The KSE-30 Index touched 5.0 percent prior to the maximum time limit of 2:30 and reversed in time to avoid market halt.

Selling pressure was evident across the board with heavy selling in E&P and Banking sector stocks, which saw respective price levels near and at lower circuits.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (down 256 points), E&P (down 195 points), Fertilizer (down 126 points), Cement (down 102 points) and O&GMCs (down 100 points).

Stocks that contributed positively to the index include PAKT (up 12 points) stocks that contributed negatively include PPL (down 67 points), ENGRO (down 66 points), POL (down 65 points), HBL (down 58 points) and HUBC (down 57 points).

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020