KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange on Monday witnessed bearish trend due to selling pressure on investor concern over prevailing economic and political situation in the country.
The benchmark KSE-100 index plunged by 502.76 points or 1.23 percent and closed below 41,000 psychological-level at 40,504.76 points. During the session, the index hit 41,074.73 points intra-day high and 40,436.14 points intra-day low level.
Due to investor lack of interest, trading activities also remained low as total daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 163.939 million shares as compared to 181.976 million shares traded on last Friday however, total daily traded value on ready counter slightly increased to Rs 6.890 billion against previous session’s Rs 6.795 billion.
BRIndex100 decreased by 57.63 points or 1.42 percent to close at 4,012.27 points with total daily turnover of 149.193 million shares.
BRIndex30 declined by 149.61 points or 1.04 percent to close at 14,286.38 points with total daily trading volumes of 120.351 million shares.
The foreign investors however remained net buyers of shares worth $507,546. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 49 billion to Rs 6.460 trillion. Out of total 328 active scrips, 247 closed in negative and only 62 in positive while the value of 19 stocks remained unchanged.
Pak Refinery was the volume leader with 17.570 million shares however lost Rs 0.06 to close at Rs 13.75 followed by Pak Petroleum that increased by Rs 2.94 to close at Rs 78.99 with 13.970 million shares. Cnergyico PK closed at Rs 3.91, down Rs 0.14 with 12.372 million shares.
Nestle Pakistan and Pak Engineering were the top gainers increasing by Rs 199.90 and Rs 23.20 respectively to close at Rs 5600.00 and Rs 332.66 while Bata Pak and Premium Textile were the top losers declining by Rs 96.79 and Rs 49.42 respectively to close at Rs 1851.21 and Rs 609.58.
“Following the return of the business week, the bears had a successful day at the PSX”, an analyst at Arif Habib Limited said. The benchmark KSE-100 index opened in the green, but bears gained control and drove the index down to minus 502.76 points at the close of trading.
The market sentiment remains negative due to current political and economic instability, as well as the notification about TRG judicial proceedings further escalated the bearish scenario pushing the index down by 570.70 points during intraday. However, investors continued value hunting keeping the E&P sector in the spotlight in expectation of the resolution of the Gas Circular debt.
Sectors contributing to the performance include Commercial Banks (down 162.8 points), Technology & Communication (down 105.3 points), Cement (down 74.2 points), Fertilizer (down 73.1 points), and Power Generation & Distribution (down 36.0 points).
BR Automobile Assembler Index decreased by 85.37 points or 1.16 percent to close at 7,243.34 points with total turnover of 2.255 million shares.
BR Cement Index declined by 94.69 points or 2.5 percent to close at 3,696.71 points with 7.531 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index fell by 152.24 points or 1.91 percent to close at 7,807.82 points with 10.283 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index lost 92.14 points or 1.46 percent to close at 6,238.32 points with 13.730 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index inched down by 43.7 points or 1.08 percent to close at 4,103.99 points with 37.777 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index plunged by 124.56 points or 2.82 percent to close at 4,290.55 points with 25.923 million shares.
Sara Saeed at JS Global Capital said that selling pressure was witnessed throughout the day where KSE-100 closed at 40,505, losing 503 points compared to the previous trading session.
Total traded volume stood at 164 million shares with highest contribution coming from PRL (down 0.4 percent), PPL (up 3.9 percent), CNERGY (down 3.5 percent), WTL (down 3.3 percent) and TRG (down 6.1 percent).
E&P and Refinery sectors remained in the limelight on the expectations of some progress on circular debt resolution.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023