KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange on Thursday witnessed bloodbath and closed in deep negative zone on fifth consecutive day due to continuous decline in PKR value, hike in electricity tariff and gas prices; which investors fear will force the State Bank to increase policy rate in upcoming monetary policy announcement on September 14.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index plunged by 1,242.14 points or 2.69 percent and closed below 46,000 psychological level at 45,002.42 points. The index hit 44,459.63 points intraday low, down 1784.93 points, however slightly recovered and managed to close above 45,000 level.

The daily trading volumes on ready counter increased to 287.356 million shares as compared to 200.292 million shares traded on Wednesday while total daily traded value on ready counter increased to Rs 12.303 billion against previous session’s Rs 8.987 billion.

BRIndex100 decreased by 137.32 points or 2.97 percent to close at 4,493.16 points with total daily turnover of 256.796 million shares. BRIndex30 declined by 459.73 points or 2.85 percent to close at 15,698.39 points with total daily trading volumes of 169.050 million shares.

Foreign investors however remained net buyers of shares worth $2.063 million. The market capitalization declined by Rs 180 billion to stand at Rs 6.715 trillion. Out of total 325 active scrips, 257 closed in negative and only 48 in positive while the value of 20 stocks remained unchanged.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 31.867 million shares however lost Rs 0.04 to close at Rs 1.14 followed by OGDC that declined by Rs 1.30 to close at Rs 92.95 with 17.491 million shares. Cnergyico PK closed at Rs 2.84, down Rs 0.13 with 13.083 million shares.

Sitara Chemical and Suraj Cotton were the top gainers increasing by Rs 15.22 and Rs 7.63 respectively to close at Rs 233.90 and Rs 109.33 while Rafhan Maize and Nestle Pakistan were the top losers declining by Rs 255.00 and Rs 188.38 respectively to close at Rs 8000.00 and Rs 6911.00.

Muhammad Waqar Iqbal at JS Global Capital said that downtrend continued taking the KSE-100 index to close at 45,002, a loss of 2.5 percent as selling was witnessed across the board.

Traded volume stood at 287 million shares where WTL (down 3.4 percent), OGDC (down 1.4 percent), CNERGY (down 4.4 percent), PRL (down 6.8 percent) and PPL (down 5.1 percent) were the volume leaders.

BR Automobile Assembler Index lost 64.85 points or 0.74 percent to close at 8,750.92 points with total turnover of 7.240 million shares.

BR Cement Index plunged by 197.32 points or 4.14 percent to close at 4,564.15 points with 16.436 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index declined by 438.74 points or 3.93 percent to close at 10,727.97 points with 43.505 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index decreased by 273.76 points or 3.15 percent to close at 8,415.86 points with 15.843 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index fell by 122.32 points or 2.87 percent to close at 4,135.07 points with 45.130 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index inched down by 12.43 points or 0.33 percent to close at 3,701.06 points with 50.546 million shares.

An analyst at Topline Securities said that continuing its momentum, the KSE-100 Index declined by 2.7 percent to close at 45,002 level. This decline in market can be attributed to investors` concern with respect to continuous decline in PKR value, hike in electricity prices and gas prices; which investors fear will push State Bank to increase policy rate in upcoming monetary policy announcement on September 14.

Major contribution to the index came from MCB, UBL, HUBC, MEBL and PPL, as they lost value to weigh down on the index by minus 433 points. MSCI quarterly rebalance took place on Thursday – where 15 stocks were added to MSCI FM Index taking the total constituents from Pakistan in the index to 17.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023