KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange on Monday witnessed bearish trend and closed in deep red with heavy losses due to across-the-board selling on investor concerns over prevailing economic and political situation in the country.

The benchmark KSE-100 index plunged by 602.70 points or 1.49 percent and closed below 40,000 psychological level at 39,720.75 points.

Due to investor lack of interest, trading activities remained very low as total daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 105.542 million shares as compared to 173.264 million shares traded on last Friday while total daily traded value on the ready counter declined to Rs 3.203 billion against previous session’s Rs 4.628 billion.

BRIndex100 decreased by 68.4 points or 1.72 percent to close at 3,914.31 points with total daily turnover of 87.096 million shares.

BRIndex30 declined by 377.65 points or 2.68 percent to close at 13,722.87 points with total daily trading volumes of 67.510 million shares.

The foreign investors also remained net sellers of shares worth $200,849. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 91 billion to Rs 6.333 trillion. Out of total 314 active scrips, 228 closed in negative and only 65 in positive while the value of 21 stocks remained unchanged.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 8.960 million shares and after moving both sides finally closed at previous session’s closing level of Rs 1.14 without any change followed by Hascol Petroleum that lost Re 0.04 to close at Rs 6.58 with 7.841 million shares. Lotte Chemical gained Re 0.48 to close at Rs 28.03 with 7.656 million shares.

Shahtaj Textile and Archroma Pak were the top gainers increasing by Rs 5.90 and Rs 4.92 respectively to close at Rs 104.90 and Rs 439.92 while Nestle Pakistan and Bata Pak were the top losers declining by Rs 251.00 and Rs 125.02 respectively to close at Rs 5399.00 and Rs 1725.00.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said the business week started off with negative sentiments across the board resulting the index to trade in the red territory throughout the trading session due to the prevailing political uproar. Investor participation remained sluggish across the board as the index made an intraday low of negative 662.70 points and closed negative at the end of the trading day. Volumes remained dry across the board.

Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P (down 132.1 points), Technology & Communication (down 97.1 points), Cement (down 63.2 points), Fertilizer (down 57.1 points), and Commercial Banks (down 56.0 points).

BR Automobile Assembler Index decreased by 101.18 points or 1.35 percent to close at 7,402.41 points with total turnover of 1.678 million shares.

BR Cement Index declined by 80.45 points or 2.15 percent to close at 3,660.94 points with 11.763 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index lost 60.55 points or 0.78 percent to close at 7,710.76 points with 3.215 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index fell by 51.77 points or 0.82 percent to close at 6,247.29 points with 5.129 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index plunged by 108.57 points or 2.7 percent to close at 3,913.47 points with 24.631 million shares.

BR Tech & Comm Index closed at 4,146.24 points, down 112.2 points or 2.63 percent with 20.045 million shares.

An analyst at Topline Securities said that Pakistan equities closed in red zone where the benchmark KSE-100 Index settled at 39,720 level, down 1.49 percent.

The market opened on a negative note as investors varied over unstable economic and political conditions which led the market to make an intraday low of minus 662 points with low volumes. Major negative contributors in the trading session were TRG, PPL, OGDC, ENGRO and SYS cumulatively dented the Index by 230 points.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023