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

The market opened on positive note, however rumors of IMF demanding another two percent increase in the policy rate triggered selling that forced the market to drop in deep red zone.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index plunged by 501.88 points or 1.23 percent and closed at 40,376.10 points. During the session, the index hit 40,998.39 points intra-day high and 40,352.46 points intra-day low level.

Total daily trading volumes on ready counter stood at 148.452 million shares as compared to 142.804 million shares traded on Tuesday while total daily traded value on ready counter declined to Rs 3.917 billion against previous session’s Rs 4.177 billion.

BRIndex100 decreased by 60.97 points or 1.47 percent to close at 4,083.71 points with total daily turnover of 122.866 million shares.

BRIndex30 declined by 301.68 points or 2.02 percent to close at 14,651.21 points with total daily trading volumes of 88.032 million shares.

Foreign investors however remained net buyers of shares worth $664,710. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 63 billion to Rs 6.172 trillion. Out of total 320 active scrips, 229 closed in negative and only 64 in positive while the value of 27 stocks remained unchanged.

Fauji Cement was the volume leader with 17.487 million shares however lost Rs 0.19 to close at Rs 11.81 followed by WorldCall Telecom that closed at Rs 1.21, down Rs 0.01 with 11.071 million shares. Thatta Cement inched down by Rs 0.28 to close at Rs 11.01 with 9.211 million shares.

Sapphire Fiber and Pak Tobacco were the top gainers increasing by Rs 66.61 and Rs 50.05 respectively to close at Rs 954.79 and Rs 717.60 while Unilever Foods and Nestle Pakistan were the top losers declining by Rs 331.00 and Rs 180.85 respectively to close at Rs 17925.00 and Rs 5000.15.

“A negative session was witnessed at the PSX,” an analyst at Arif Habib Limited said. The KSE-100 index opened with positive numbers but sentiment soon shifted in favor of bears as the market traded in the red zone for the majority of the trading session. Due to the delay in signing the Staff Level Agreement between the government and the IMF, as well as the prevalent macroeconomic uncertainty, investors chose to stay cautious, causing the index to fall to an intraday low of negative 525.27 points. Volumes remained flat across the board, with 3rd tier stocks remaining in the limelight.

Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P (down 73.3 points), Cement (down 72.6 points), Technology & Communication (down 59.7 points), Commercial Banks (down 53.9 points) and Miscellaneous (down 48.6 points).

BR Automobile Assembler Index inched down by 11.59 points or 0.15 percent to close at 7,505.15 points with total turnover of 1.918 million shares.

BR Cement Index plunged by 90.22 points or 2.28 percent to close at 3,875.42 points with 35.978 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index decreased by 60.68 points or 0.73 percent to close at 8,216.02 points with 9.716 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index lost 37.5 points or 0.53 percent to close at 7,076.73 points with 6.014 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index declined by 57.96 points or 1.45 percent to close at 3,935.30 points with 12.698 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index fell by 68.48 points or 1.63 percent to close at 4,129.66 points with 25.300 million shares.

Muhammad Shuja Qureshi at JS Global Capital said that the KSE-100 Index opened on a positive note gaining 119 points to make a high at 40,997 points. However, rumors of IMF demanding another two percent increase in the policy rate triggered selling leading the index to lose 502 points to close at 40,376.

The KSE-100 Index turnover increased slightly to 67 million shares where FCCL (down 1.6 percent), WTL (down 0.8 percent), THCCL (down 2.5 percent), FFL (down 0.7 percent) and GGL (down 4.1 percent) were the volume leaders.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023