KARACHI: A bearish trend continued on Pakistan Stock Exchange on Wednesday due to heavy selling on economic uncertainty amid slump in Pak rupee and likely hike in interest rates owing to high inflation.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index plunged by 525.86 points or 1.12 percent and closed at 46,244.56 points. The index hit 46,857.88 points intraday high and 46,101.34 points intraday low.

Trading activity also remained low as the daily volumes on ready counter declined to 200.288 million shares as compared to 217.852 million shares traded on Tuesday. The daily traded value increased to Rs 8.987 billion against previous session’s Rs 8.280 billion.

BRIndex100 decreased by 65.19 points or 1.39 percent to close at 4,630.48 points with the daily turnover of 174.556 million shares.

BRIndex30 declined by 278.08 points or 1.69 percent to close at 16,158.12 points with the daily trading volume of 103.690 million shares.

The market capitalization declined by Rs 76 billion to Rs 6.895 trillion. Out of total 327 active scrips, 240 closed in negative and only 70 in positive while the value of 17 stocks remained unchanged.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 16.322 million shares however lost Rs 0.02 to close at Rs 1.18 followed by K-Electric that inched down by Rs 0.11 to close at Rs 1.89 with 12.424 trillion. Dewan Motors gained Rs 0.28 to close at Rs 16.60 with 12.107 million shares.

Sapphire Fiber and Sapphire Textile were the top gainers increasing by Rs 78.00 and Rs 77.89 respectively to close at Rs 1148.00 and Rs 1128.00 while Mehmood Textile and Mari Petroleum were the top losers declining by Rs 54.50 and Rs 20.92 respectively to close at Rs 685.00 and Rs 1619.53.

Muhammad Waqar Iqbal at JS Global Capital said that the trading session started on a negative note as volumes remained low. News of earlier announcement of monetary policy during the day led to selling on investors’ end.

Traded volume stood at 200 million shares with WTL (down 1.7 percent), KEL (down 5.5 percent), DFML (up 1.7 percent), NCPL (down 7.5 percent) and PPL (down 2.3 percent) being the highest contributors.

BR Automobile Assembler Index inched down by 1.88 points or 0.02 percent to close at 8,815.77 points with total turnover of 16.530 million shares.

BR Cement Index declined by 61.23 points or 1.27 percent to close at 4,761.47 points with 9.704 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index lost 51.91 points or 0.46 percent to close at 11,166.71 points with 22.975 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index plunged by 352.79 points or 3.9 percent to close at 8,689.62 points with 36.533 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index decreased by 64.05 points or 1.48 percent to close at 4,257.39 points with 23.804 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index fell by 67.25 points or 1.78 percent to close at 3,713.49 points with 32.505 million shares.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that the stocks fell across the board on economic uncertainty amid slump in rupee and likely hike in interest rates owing to high inflation. The banking stocks outperformed on strong earnings and surging banking spreads.

He said Moody’s assertion for weak infrastructure, lack of fiscal capacity and governance issues and concerns for unresolved circular debt crises in the power sector played a catalytic role in bearish close.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023