KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Monday witnessed a bearish trend with extremely low volumes as the investors opted to remain on the sidelines due to their concerns over prevailing economic and political situation in the country.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index plunged by 444.97 points or 1.08 percent and closed below 41,000 psychological level at 40,673.64 points.
Trading activity remained extremely low as total daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 92.717 million shares as compared to 110.366 million shares traded last Friday. The daily traded value on ready counter declined to Rs 4.461 billion against last session’s Rs 4.677 billion.
BRIndex100 decreased by 60.06 points or 1.46 percent to close at 4,061.59 points with total daily turnover of 83.456 million shares.
BRIndex30 declined by 398.19 points or 2.7 percent to close at 14,334.51 points with total trading volumes of 55.386 million shares.
The market capitalization declined by Rs 73 billion to Rs 6.356 trillion. Out of total 313 active scrips, 225 closed in negative and only 65 in positive while the value of 23 stocks remained unchanged.
WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 6.395 million shares however lost Rs 0.03 to close at Rs 1.16 followed by OGDC that declined by Rs 4.86 to close at Rs 89.72 with 5.383 million shares. TRG Pak decreased by Rs 2.51 to close at Rs 112.59 with 4.393 million shares.
Premium Textile and Pak Tobacco were the top gainers increasing by Rs 36.46 and Rs 28.63 respectively to close at Rs 546.46 and Rs 778.73 while Rafhan Maize and Bata Pak were the top losers declining by Rs 689.25 and Rs 149.24 respectively to close at Rs 8500.75 and Rs 1840.75.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that a negative session at PSX was recorded to kick off the week. The market opened in the red and continued to trade in that region, reaching an intraday low of minus 494.64 points on speculation of a policy rate hike in the coming days. Given the country’s political turmoil, investors chose to remain on the sidelines, resulting in significant volume declines across the board, while 3rd equities remained in the spotlight.
Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P (down 139.1 points), Commercial Banks (down 95.1 points), Fertilizer (down 44.9 points), OMCs (down 41.3 points) and Cement (down 38.6 points).
BR Automobile Assembler Index declined by 87.16 points or 1.18 percent to close at 7,306.63 points with total turnover of 3.124 million shares.
BR Cement Index fell by 43.03 points or 1.16 percent to close at 3,654.59 points with 8.086 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index decreased by 93.88 points or 1.15 percent to close at 8,078.34 points with 10.471 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index lost 72.39 points or 1.08 percent to close at 6,628.55 points with 6.998 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index plunged by 110.33 points or 2.65 percent to close at 4,057.49 points with 17.159 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 4,247.65 points, down 6.12 points or 0.14 percent with 14.582 million shares.
An analyst at Topline Securities said that Pakistan equities closed negative where the benchmark KSE-100 Index settled at 40,673 level, down 1.08 percent.
Uncertainty over agreement with the IMF and rumors of emergency monetary policy where investor expect 200bps rate hike led the market to slid where the market made an intraday low of minus 494 points. Major negative contributors in the trading session were OGDC, PPL, HBL, TRG and MEBL cumulatively dented the Index by 239 points.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023