KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Monday witnessed a bearish trend and closed in deep red on across-the-board selling due to concerns over mounting inflation and hawkish stance in the upcoming

monetary policy. The market opened on slightly positive note, however could not sustain this momentum and dropped in deep red. The market remained in negative territory throughout the session.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index plunged by 519.41 points or 1.20 percent and closed below 43,000 psychological level at 42,876.37 points. Trading activity remained very thin as daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 150.389 million shares as compared to 179.172 million shares traded on previous session.

BRIndex100 decreased by 75.11 points or 1.7 percent to close at 4,343.85 points with total daily turnover of 121.219 million shares.

BRIndex30 declined by 599.61 points or 3.45 percent to close at 16,787.74 points with total daily trading volumes of 75.061 million shares.

Foreign investors however remained on buying side with fresh inflow of $3.295 million. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 87 billion to Rs 7.367 trillion. Out of total 331 active scrips, 250 closed in negative and only 65 in positive while the value of 16 stocks remained unchanged.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 18.332 million shares however lost Rs 0.18 to close at Rs 1.70 followed by Byco Petroleum that closed at Rs 5.65, down Rs 0.03 with 7.301 million shares.

Gatron Industries and Pak Tobacco were the top gainers increasing by Rs 34.22 and Rs 30.00 respectively to close at Rs 524.99 and Rs 1100.00 while Nestle Pakistan and Bata Pak were the top losers declining by Rs 333.74 and Rs 93.38, respectively to close at Rs 5356.25 and Rs 1746.62.

An analyst at Topline Securities said that the Pakistan equities closed red where the benchmark KSE-100 Index settled at 42,876 level, down 1.20 percent. Investors were waiting for monetary policy announcement which is due on Tuesday.

The market opened on a slight positive note, however the KSE-100 Index came under pressure and traded negatively throughout the day making an intraday low of 589 points. Major negativity came from Technology and Communication sector where TRG and SYS cumulatively dented the Index by 136 points, further profit taking was witnessed in Financial sector as UBL, MCB and MEBL were the major laggards.

BR Automobile Assembler Index declined by 118.05 points or 1.42 percent to close at 8,207.75 points with total turnover of 902,120 shares.

BR Cement Index lost 43.32 points or 0.82 percent to close at 5,208.50 points with 10.083 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index fell by 76.86 points or 0.78 percent to close at 9,802.61 points with 15.643 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index closed at 5,373.45 points, down 13.03 points or 0.24 percent with 7.608 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index decreased by 70.14 points or 1.86 percent to close at 3,696.62 points with 10.795 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index plunged by 191.75 points or 5.07 percent to close at 3,587.36 points with 35.305 million shares.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market continued to remain in the red zone due to concerns over mounting inflation and hawkish stance in the upcoming monetary. Activity remained lackluster. The market opened on a bleak note and mostly cyclical stocks remained under pressure throughout the day. In the last trading hour, across the board selling was witnessed due to lack of any positive trigger.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Technology and Communication (down 147 points), E&P (down 88 points), Commercial Banks (down 72 points), Cement (down 28 points) and Pharma (down 27 points).

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021