KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Monday witnessed panic selling and closed in deep red due to investors' concerns over increasing coronavirus cases.

BRIndex100 lost 65.31 points or 1.57 percent to close at 4,103.01 points. BRIndex100 hit intraday high of 4,168.32 and intraday low of 4,068.34 points. Volume stood at 174.984 million shares.

BRIndex30 declined by 383.64 points or 1.83 percent to close at 20,561.84 points with a turnover of 127.518 million shares.

The KSE-100 Index plunged by 554.66 points or 1.38 percent to close below 40,000 psychological level at 39,632.52 points. Daily trading volumes on the ready counter increased to 195.467 million shares as compared to 189.857 million shares traded Friday.

Foreign investors also remained net sellers of shares worth $992,477. The market capitalization declined by Rs 89 billion to Rs 7.318 trillion. Out of total 382 active scrips, 297 closed in negative and only 63 in positive while the value of 22 stocks remained unchanged.

Unity Foods was the volume leader with 15.418 million shares however lost Rs 0.60 to close at Rs 23.12 followed by Hascol Petroleum that declined by Rs 0.84 to close at Rs 13.28 with 15.313 million shares. Rafhan Maize and Sapphire Fiber were the top gainers increasing by Rs 150.00 and Rs 60.00 respectively to close at Rs 8450.00 and Rs 975.00 while Bata Pak and Siemens Pak were the top losers declining by Rs 44.00 and Rs 42.97 respectively to close at Rs 1371.00 and Rs 532.03.

BR Automobile Assembler Index plunged by 219.46 points or 2.82 percent to close at 7,570.25 points with total turnover of 2.026 million shares.

BR Cement Index declined by 97.82 points or 1.69 percent to close at 5,698.38 points with 23.265 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index decreased by 104.87 points or 1.24 percent to close at 8,327.44 points with 15.965 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index lost 28.15 points or 0.58 percent to close at 4,814.67 points with 9.104 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index fell by 50.36 points or 1.38 percent to close at 3,595.41 points with 26.086 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 1,831.55 points, down 65.1 points or 3.43 percent with 33.854 million shares.

"Following the rising cases of Corona and partial lockdown in different cities, coinciding with the rollover week, the KSE-100 Index took heavy battering that resulted in KSE-100 Index losing 873 points during the session and closing down 555 points).

O&GMCs, Banks, Cement sector stocks played major role in this drop. E&P sector stocks saw trades executed below respective LDCPs, with the exception of POL, which recovered on the back of increase in international crude pr ices. SBP also announced Monetary Policy keeping the rate unchanged at 7.0 percent, which was in line with street consensus.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (down 121 points), Cement (down 65 points), O&GMCs (down 64 points), Technology (down 42 points) and Fertilizer (down 41 points).

Stocks that contributed positively to the index include COLG (up 6 points), POL (up 5 points), ABOT (up 3 points), NESTLE (up 3 points) and HMB (up 3 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include HBL (down 30 points), PSO (down 26 points), TRG (down 26 points), MEBL (down 17 points) and MCB (down 17 points).

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020