It was a day of massive selling at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) as investors resorted to profit-taking with the benchmark KSE-100 Index closing at just over 111,000 level after a historic single-day loss of 3,790 points on Wednesday.
The bourse witnessed a volatile session, as the KSE-100 hit an intra-day high of 116,236.70 during the opening hours of trading.
However, market participants soon resorted to profit-taking, which persisted till end of the session, dragging the KSE-100 to an intra-day low of 110,896.27.
At close, the benchmark index settled at 111,070.29, a decrease of 3,790.39 points or 3.3%.
This is KSE-100’s “largest single-day decline in its history [in terms of points]”, said brokerage house Arif Habib Limited (AHL) in a note.
Across-the-board selling was witnessed in key sectors including automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs, power generation and refinery. Index-heavy stocks including HUBCO, PRL, NRL, SSGC, SNGP, MARI, OGDC, PPL, POL, ENGRO, HBL, MCB, MEBL and UBL settled in red.
Experts attributed the selling pressure to profit-taking.
Earlier, buying momentum was observed which came on the back of improved economic indicators and a reduction in policy rate, which has diverted liquidity to the equities.
“Local mutual funds, having been net buyers for the past fourteen consecutive trading sessions, shifted to net sellers yesterday. Market sentiment suggests that they continued this selling trend today [Wednesday] as well,” another brokerage house Topline Securities said in its post market report.
The primary drivers of the downward movement were MARI, FFC, HUBC, PPL, and MEBL, which collectively accounted for an alarming 1,731 points of the index’s overall decline, it added.
In a key development, Pakistan’s current account posted a surplus of $729 million in November 2024 compared to a deficit of $148 million in the same month of the previous year, data released on Tuesday by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) showed.
This was the fourth consecutive month of a current account surplus.
On Tuesday, the PSX witnessed a volatile session as the benchmark KSE-100 Index fell over 1,300 to settle at 114,860.68.
Globally, stocks stalled while the dollar drifted higher on Wednesday as investors made last-minute adjustments to portfolios in the countdown to the year’s final salvo of central bank meetings, while news of a potential Nissan-Honda tie-up lifted car stocks.
S&P 500 futures were flat in the Asia session after the index fell in US trade. European futures and FTSE futures were about 0.2% lower. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was huddled near a two-week low and had inched 0.2% higher by afternoon.
Traders have been driving up US yields and the US dollar accordingly, with benchmark 10-year yields touching one-month highs around 4.4% overnight, before settling at 4.39%.
Moves in the Asia session were small, muted by the upcoming Fed meeting and central bank meetings in Japan, Britain, Norway and Sweden on Thursday.
Volume on the all-share index decreased to 1,111.92 million from 1,252.98 million on Tuesday.
The value of shares declined to Rs60.24 billion from Rs62.72 billion in the previous session.
WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 139.29 million shares, followed by Cnergyico PK with 67.46 million shares, and B.O.Punjab with 60.16 million shares.
Shares of 472 companies were traded on Wednesday, of which 89 registered an increase, 349 recorded a fall, while 34 remained unchanged.