KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Monday closed in deep red with heavy losses due to panic selling on investor concerns over spreading Coronavirus cases in the country.
BRIndex100 decreased by 157.86 points or 3.22 percent to close at 4,750.98 points. BRIndex100 hit intraday high of 4,908.84 and intraday low of 4,738.95 points. Volumes stood at 498.674 million shares.
BRIndex30 declined by 1146.58 points or 4.39 percent to close at 24,985.90 points with total daily turnover of 405.725 million shares. The KSE-100 Index plunged by 1,089.83 points or 2.39 percent to close at 44,431.80 points. Daily trading volume on ready counter stood at 523.877 million shares as compared to 529.204 million shares traded last Friday.
Foreign investors also remained net sellers of shares worth $1.724 million. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 191 billion to Rs 7.845 trillion. Out of total 408 active scrips, 359 closed in negative and only 37 in positive while the value of 12 stocks remained unchanged.
Byco Petroleum was the volume leader with 80.249 million shares however lost Rs 0.91 to close at Rs 10.63 followed by Pak Refinery that declined by Rs 2.07 to close at Rs 26.46 with 48.963 million shares. Island Textile and Wyeth Pak were the top gainers increasing by Rs 150.00 and Rs 48.51 respectively to close at Rs 2150.00 and Rs 984.20 while Rafhan Maize and Nestle Pakistan were the top losers declining by Rs 349.99 and Rs 92.50 respectively to close at Rs 9400.01 and Rs 5847.50.
BR Automobile Assembler Index declined by 212.15 points or 2.39 percent to close at 8,679.24 points with 2.993 million shares.
BR Cement Index plunged by 228.45 points or 3.21 percent to close at 6,895.51 points with 28.549 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index decreased by 184.75 points or 2.12 percent to close at 8,521.54 points with 19.573 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index lost 112.21 points or 1.96 percent to close at 5,620.35 points with 24.678 million shares. BR Oil and Gas Index fell by 100.85 points or 2.46 percent to close at 3,999.50 points with 26.440 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 3,784.69 points, down 195.11 points or 4.9 percent with 105.962 million shares.
Maaz Mulla at JS Global Capital said carnage was witnessed as the KSE-100 Index lost 1,090 points to close at 44,431. This pressure in the market was partially due to the increasing Covid cases in the country. Positivity rates are already in the double digits and well beyond those seen in the second wave while absolute number of infections have also dwarfed second-wave levels.
In the later hours of the trading session, most possibly Mutual Funds redemption steamrolled the sentiment downwards.
Volumes stood at 524 million shares, where top volume contributors were BYCO (down 7.9 percent), PRL (down 7.3 percent), ANL (down 0.1 percent), TRG (down 7.3 percent), PTC (down 5.6 percent) and UNITY (down 7.1 percent).
Selling pressure was witnessed in Refinery and Technology sectors where ATRL (down 6.9 percent), NRL (down 6.9 percent), PRL (down 7.3 percent), BYCO (down 7.9 percent), NETSOL (down 7.5 percent), TRG (down 7.3 percent) and AVN (down 7.2 percent) closed at their respective lower locks.
Cement sector followed the same trend where PIOC (down 5.8 percent), CHCC (down 5.3 percent), MLCF (down 3.7 percent), DGKC (down 3.8 percent) and LUCK (down 2.3 percent) lost value.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021