KARACHI: A bearish trend continued on Pakistan Stock Exchange on Tuesday due to heavy selling in almost all sectors as investors opted to offload their holdings following concerns over political unrest in the country and depreciating PKR against US$.
The market remained in negative zone most part of the day and closed deep in the red with heavy losses.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index plunged by 489.93 points or 1.15 percent and closed below 42,000 psychological level at 41,950.32 points. During the session, the KSE-100 index hit 42,636.54 points intra-day high and 41,917.55 points intra-day low level.
Trading activity slightly improved as total volumes on ready counter increased to 169.707 million shares as compared to 118.986 million shares traded on Monday while total daily traded value increased to Rs 5.462 billion against previous day’s Rs 3.576 billion.
BRIndex100 declined by 45.52 points or 1.08 percent to close at 4,156.70 points with total daily turnover of 157.270 million shares.
BRIndex30 lost 10.42 points or 0.07 percent to close at 14,536.88 points with total daily trading volumes of 117.259 million shares.
Foreign investors also remained net sellers of shares worth $510,805. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 57 billion to Rs 6.990 trillion. Out of total 318 active scrips, 208 closed in negative and only 94 in positive while the value of 16 stocks remained unchanged.
Pak Refinery was the volume leader with 15.739 million shares and gained Rs 0.46 to close at Rs 15.74 followed by Silk Bank that closed at Rs 1.39, up Rs 0.07 with 14.667 million shares. TPL Properties inched up by Rs 0.38 to close at Rs 15.49 with 10.602 million shares.
Sapphire Textile and Gatron Industries were the top gainers increasing by Rs 34.15 and Rs 27.99 respectively to close at Rs 1038.70 and Rs 434.99 while Rafhan Maize and Sanofi-Aventis were the top losers declining by Rs 100.00 and Rs 49.79 respectively to close at Rs 9800.00 and Rs 800.21.
An analyst at Topline Securities said that the Pakistan equities closed on a red mark where benchmark KSE-100 Index closed at the level of 41,950, down 1.15 percent.
During the day, market continued its Monday’s negative momentum where KSE-100 Index made an intraday low of 524 points. Ambiguity over IMF program, unstable political conditions and secondary market yields kept the investors’ confidence in check.
Major decliners in the trading session were SYS, UBL, FFC, LUCK and HUBC. On the flip side, TRG, POL and HBL closed on a positive note.
BR Automobile Assembler Index lost 38.75 points or 0.4 percent to close at 9,583.37 points with total turnover of 719,029 shares.
BR Cement Index plunged by 93.36 points or 2.19 percent to close at 4,175.18 points with 17.803 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index declined by 100.34 points or 1.05 percent to close at 9,427.50 points with 19.364 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index decreased by 44.33 points or 0.85 percent to close at 5,167.83 points with 6.841 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index inched down by 10.25 or 0.29 percent to close at 3,555.91 points with 3.968 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 3,117.45 points, down 82.71 points or 2.58 percent with 29.710 million shares.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the KSE-100 Index opened negative and witnessed a volatile session throughout the day due to concerns over foreign exchange reserves and rate hike in the MPS which pulled off confidence among investors.
The market continued to remain under pressure as investors opted to remain on the sidelines until further clarity on the political as well as economic front. Volumes remained dry throughout the main board whereas, healthy volumes were observed in the 3rd tier stocks.
Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (down 108.8 points), Technology (down 74.8 points), Cement (down 72.1 points), Fertilizer (down 56.2 points) and Chemical (down 25.0 points).
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022