KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Thursday witnessed a bearish trend due to heavy selling in almost all sectors on investor concerns over prevailing economic and political situation in the country.
The market opened in green zone, however it failed to continue this trend due to selling pressure and closed in deep red.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index plunged by 557.86 points or 1.34 percent and closed at 41,179.76 points. The index hit 41,997.66 points intraday high and 41,109.29 points intraday low.
The daily trading volumes on ready counter increased to 245.017 million shares as compared to 146.710 million shares traded on Wednesday while total daily traded value on ready counter increased to Rs 7.595 billion against previous session’s Rs 3.910 billion.
BRIndex100 decreased by 63.66 points or 1.53 percent to close at 4,103.93 points with total daily turnover of 205.010 million shares.
BRIndex30 declined by 326.18 points or 2.15 percent to close at 14,859.41 points with total daily trading volumes of 101.969 million shares.
The foreign investors also remained net sellers of shares worth $4.144 million. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 83 billion to Rs 6.544 trillion. Out of total 330 active scrips, 249 closed in negative and only 67 in positive while the value of 14 stocks remained unchanged.
Bank Alfalah was the volume leader with 41.170 million shares however lost Rs 0.47 to close at Rs 30.69 followed by WorldCall Telecom that inched down by Rs 0.06 to close at Rs 1.29 with 18.586 million shares. K-Electric closed at Rs 2.46, down Rs 0.06 with 10.055 million shares.
Bhanero Textile and Pak Services were the top gainers increasing by Rs 79.72 and Rs 70.83 respectively to close at Rs 1142.72 and Rs 1350.00 while Unilever Foods and Rehan Maize were the top losers declining by Rs 1000.00 and Rs 360.00 respectively to close at Rs 24000.00 and Rs 8700.00.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the bears took control at the PSX. The market opened in the green and made an intraday high of plus 259.20 points but things quickly turned around as bears took charge of the trading session. As a result, the market closed in the red at the closing bell, losing 557.86 points, as mutual funds began redeeming their positions over the prevailing political clamor.
News of the acquisition (buyback) of shares by numerous corporations increased volumes across the board, but third-tier stocks continued to dominate the board in terms of volume.
Sectors contributing to the performance include Commercial Banks (down 180.4 points), E&P (down 106.1 points), Technology & Communication (down 66.5 points), Power Generation & Distribution (down 57.3 points) and Cement (down 37.4 points).
BR Automobile Assembler Index plunged by 214.52 points or 2.63 percent to close at 7,940.88 points with total turnover of 9.706 million shares.
BR Cement Index lost 43.32 points or 1.08 percent to close at 3,952.68 points with 18.399 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index decreased by 167.35 points or 2.0 percent to close at 8,212.02 points with 58.428 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index declined by 143.95 points or 2.17 percent to close at 6,481.20 points with 17.023 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index fell by 82.96 points or 2.17 percent to close at 3,743.85 points with 16.784 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 4,696.90 points, down 87.36 points or 1.83 percent with 39.770 million shares.
An analyst at Topline Securities said that the Pakistan equities witnessed a bearish trend where benchmark KSE-100 settled at 41,179 level, down 1.34 percent.
The day kicked off on a positive note as investors cheered the ENGRO material information in which they notified the exchanged regarding the purchase/buy-back of the company of up to 70 million issued and paid-up ordinary shares of the company which led the stock to touch its upper limit and market make an intraday high of 259 points.
However this positivity didn’t sustain at the bourse as profit-taking witnessed as FED reserve raised interest rates by half a percentage and projected further rate hike by the end of 2023, which led the market to make an intraday low of minus 627 points. Major negative contributors in the trading session were UBL, HUBC, PPL, EFERT and BAHL dented the Index by 218 points from KSE-100 Index.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022