KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange on Friday remained under severe pressure and closed in deep red with heavy losses due to panic selling on their concerns over political uncertainty in the country.

The benchmark KSE-100 plunged by 1,721.97 points or 2.10 percent and closed at 80,117.89 points. During the session, the index hit 79,812.70 points intra-day low level, however slightly recovered due to fresh buying in some stocks on dips.

Total daily trading volumes on ready counter stood at 479.000 million shares as compared to 470.310 million shares traded on Thursday while total daily traded value on the ready counter increased to Rs 27.851 billion against previous session’s Rs 25.349 billion.

BRIndex100 decreased by 252.17 points or 2.89 percent to close at 8,458.40 points with total daily turnover of 400.849 million shares.

BRIndex30 declined by 1,029.49 points or 3.7 percent to close at 26,757.95 points with total daily trading volumes of 231.922 million shares.

The foreign investors however remained net buyer of shares worth $5.107 million. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 192 billion to Rs 10.662 trillion. Out of total 446 active scrips, 305 closed in negative and only 91 in positive while the value of 50 stocks remained unchanged.

Waves Home App was the volume leader with 36.876 million shares and gained Rs 0.03 to close at Rs 10.07 followed by Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim that lost Rs 0.99 to close at Rs 41.03 with 30.672 million shares. Pak Elektron declined by Rs 2.27 to close at Rs 26.38 with 24.821 million shares.

Reliance Cotton Spinning Mills and Khyber Textile Mills were the top gainers increasing by Rs 52.03 and Rs 30.94 respectively to close at Rs 630.00 and Rs 363.08 while Rafhan Maize Products Company and Nestle Pakistan were the top losers declining by Rs 144.43 and Rs 143.47 respectively to close at Rs 7,585.57 and Rs 7,005.00.

An analyst at Topline Securities said that the KSE-100 Index largely remained under pressure during the trading session which can be attributed to political noise as government has indicated resistance against the Supreme Court order in favour of PTI’s claim to reserved seats in the assemblies.

Major contribution to the index came from HUBC, FFC, HBL, PPL and UBL, as they cumulatively lost value to weigh down on the index by 717 points.

BR Automobile Assembler Index decreased by 338.2 points or 1.82 percent to close at 18,293.17 points with total turnover of 10.102 million shares.

BR Cement Index lost 77.41 points or 0.97 percent to close at 7,921.40 points with 23.679 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index declined by 490.24 points or 2.1 percent to close at 22,905.26 points with 31.684 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index plunged by 761.28 points or 3.86 percent to close at 18,956.70 points with 37.330 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index fell by 83.64 points or 1.22 percent to close at 6,769.30 points with 43.409 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index eroded 185.09 points or 4.29 percent to close at 4,134.36 points with 88.702 million shares.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said stocks fell sharply lower on rising political uncertainty amid concerns over outcome of SC reserved seat verdict limiting Government constitutional powers.

He said over-leveraging, institutional profit taking in overbought scrips and concerns over economic uncertainty amid political noise played a catalyst role in bearish close.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024