KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Monday witnessed a bloodbath throughout the day due to political unrest, further depreciation of Pak rupee against the USD and uncertainty regarding debt repayments and depletion of foreign exchange reserves led the investors to remain on the sidelines awaiting a positive trigger by IMF revival programme.
After opening in negative, the market nosedived due to across-the-board aggressive selling and closed in deep red with heavy losses.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index plunged by 1,447.67 points or 3.23 percent and closed at 43,393.14 points. During the session, the KSE-100 Index hit 43,235.32 points intraday low.
Due to selling pressure, total daily trading volumes increased to 305.207 million shares as compared to 189.484 million shares traded last Friday while total daily traded value increased to Rs 9.238 billion against previous session’s Rs 5.661 billion.
BRIndex100 decreased by 176.48 points or 3.92 percent to close at 4,321.29 points with total daily turnover of 270.131 million shares. BRIndex30 declined by 1021.18 points or 6.34 percent to close at 15,074.18 points with total daily trading volumes of 165.581 million shares.
Foreign investors also remained net sellers of shares worth $182,495. The market capitalization declined by Rs 229 billion to Rs 7.214 trillion. Out of total 363 active scrips, 311 closed in negative and only 38 in positive while the value of 14 stocks remained unchanged.
Lotte Chemical was the volume leader with 27.005 million shares and gained Rs 0.54 to close at Rs 25.20 followed by Cnergyico PK that lost Rs 0.55 to close at Rs 5.56 with 23.858 million shares. WorldCall Telecom closed at Rs 1.57, down Rs 0.11 with 20.975 million shares.
Thal Ind. Corp and Murree Brewery were the top gainers increasing by Rs 19.57 and Rs 18.95 respectively to close at Rs 282.00 and Rs 423.95 while Rafhan Maize and Bhanero Textile were the top losers declining by Rs 850.00 and Rs 115.34 respectively to close at Rs 10,750.00 and Rs 1,422.55.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market witnessed bloodbath throughout the day, due to further devaluation of the rupee against the USD and uncertainty regarding debt repayments and depletion of foreign exchange reserves led the investors to remain on the sidelines awaiting a positive trigger by the IMF revival programme. The session remained dull as profit-selling was observed across-the-board. On the contrary, hefty volumes were observed in the 3rd tier stocks.
Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (down 305.1 points), Cements (down 237.0 points), Technology (down 183.2 points) and E&P (down 130.0 points).
BR Automobile Assembler Index lost 173.06 points or 1.78 percent to close at 9,572.97 points with total turnover of 1.101 million shares.
BR Cement Index plunged by 314.7 points or 6.45 percent to close at 4,564.67 points with 27.808 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index fell by 288.46 points or 2.88 percent to close at 9,717.18 points with 35.143 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index closed at 5,391.02 points, down 133.57 points or 2.42 percent with 10.949 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index decreased by 113.57 points or 3.01 percent to close at 3,661.24 points with 9.270 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index declined by 238.97 points or 6.72 percent to close at 3,318.53 points with 58.178 million shares.
An analyst at Topline Securities said that bears ruled at the bourse as the benchmark KSE-100 Index settled at 43,393 level, down 3.23 percent.
The market opened on a negative note over unstable political and economic conditions which led the market to make an intraday low of 1,607 points. Selling sprees witnessed across the board however major laggards sectors were Cements, Technology and Banks as LUCK, SYS and HBL closed lower.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022