KARACHI: A declining trend continued on Pakistan Stock Exchange Tuesday due to across-the-board selling on political unrest and overheated commodities cycle.

The market opened on a negative note and despite mid-session support, closed in deep red.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index plunged by 388.62 points or 0.90 percent to close at 42,878.35 points. The KSE-100 Index remained oscillating between 43,427.83 points intraday high and 42,782.52 points intraday low level.

Trading activity also remained low as total daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 226.106 million shares as compared to 236.881 million shares traded on Monday while total daily traded value on ready counter declined to Rs 7.120 billion against previous day’s Rs 8.211 billion.

BRIndex100 decreased by 49.02 points or 1.13 percent to close at 4,288.95 points with total daily turnover of 202.064 million shares.

BRIndex30 declined by 215.37 points or 1.38 percent to close at 15,354.47 points with total daily trading volumes of 150.755 million shares.

Foreign investors also remained net sellers of shares worth $406,456. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 62 billion to Rs 7.383 trillion. Out of total 343 active scrips, 223 closed in negative and 102 in positive while the value of 18 stocks remained unchanged.

TPL Corp was the volume leader with 17.359 million shares however lost Rs 1.00 to close at Rs 10.46 followed by Unity Foods that declined by Rs 1.49 to close at Rs 23.64 with 17.186 million shares. Ghani Global Holding closed at Rs 15.83, down Rs 0.87 with 16.902 million shares.

Rafhan Maize and Sapphire Fiber were the top gainers increasing by Rs 200.00 and Rs 56.76 respectively to close at Rs 11,999.00 and Rs 880.01 while Nestle Pakistan and Bata Pak were the top losers declining by Rs 140.00 and Rs 57.51 respectively to close at Rs 5400.00 and Rs 2092.49.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said a volatile session was observed due to political unrest and overheated commodities cycle. The market opened in the red zone and stayed under pressure throughout the day.

Cement sector stayed in the red zone due to mounting international coal prices. In the last trading hour, across the board selling was witnessed.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (down 85.8 points), Cement (down 67.7 points), E&P (down 62.1 points), Power (down 37.3 points) and OMC (down 34.0 points).

BR Automobile Assembler Index plunged by 157.82 points or 1.8 percent to close at 8,589.76 points with total turnover of 1.143 million shares.

BR Cement Index declined by 87.84 points or 1.78 percent to close at 4,842.35 points with 12.328 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index lost 77.39 points or 0.79 percent to close at 9,723.90 points with 11.797 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index decreased by 84.99 points or 1.52 percent to close at 5,489.57 points with 8.187 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index fell by 57.84 points or 1.45 percent to close at 3,933.87 points with 10.323 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 3,200.59 points, down 4.6 points or 0.14 percent with 61.926 million shares.

An analyst at Topline Securities said that Pakistan equities closed on a negative note where benchmark KSE-100 Index settled at 42,878 level, down 0.90 percent.

After a sideways, opening market juggled between rangebound territory, however in the second half market witnessed selling pressure as Opposition submitted no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan in National Assembly where the market make an intraday low of 478 points.

Major negative contributors to the trading session were LUCK, PPL and HUBC cumulatively dented the Index by 103 points.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022