KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed a bloodbath as KSE-100 Index nosedived by over 1,200 points due to political unrest and overheated commodities cycle, market participants said. The market opened in deep red and remained under pressure throughout the session where across the board selling was observed.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index plunged by 1,284.38 points or 2.88 percent and closed at 43,266.97 points. During the session, the Index hit 43,049.41 points intraday low level, down 1,501.94 points however the index minimized its intraday losses due to value buying in last hour mainly in E&P Sector.

Due to heavy selling pressure, total daily trading volumes on ready counter increased to 236.881 million shares as compared to 134.798 million shares traded on previous session. Total daily traded value on ready counter increased to Rs 8.211 billion against previous session’s Rs 4.736 billion.

BRIndex100 decreased by 176.91 points or 3.92 percent to close at 4,337.97 points with total daily turnover of 194.521 million shares.

BRIndex30 declined by 1012.05 points or 6.1 percent to close at 15,569.84 points with total daily trading volumes of 124.852 million shares.

Foreign investors also remained net sellers of shares worth $918,087. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 214 billion to Rs 7.445 trillion. Out of total 358 active scrips, 301 closed in negative and only 41 in positive while the value of 16 stocks remained unchanged.

Hum Network was the volume leader with 20.073 million shares however lost Rs 0.41 to close at Rs 6.79 followed by WorldCall Telecom that closed at Rs 1.75, down Rs 0.08 with 11.545 million shares. Flying Cement (R) inched down by Rs 0.19 to close at Rs 0.48 with 11.439 million shares.

Rafhan Maize and Sapphire Textile were the top gainers increasing by Rs 99.00 and Rs 46.98 respectively to close at Rs 11,799.00 and Rs 949.96 while Sapphire Fiber and Premium Textile were the top losers declining by Rs 66.75 and Rs 54.00 respectively to close at Rs 823.25 and Rs 666.00.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that bloodbath session was observed due to political unrest and overheated commodities cycle. Market opened in the red zone and stayed under pressure throughout the day.

Across the board selling was witnessed by the institutional investors. In the last trading hour, value buying was observed mainly in the E&P sector.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Cement (down 235.2 points), Banks (down 222.1 points), Technology (down 159.2 points), Fertilizer (down 97.8 points) and Power (down 91.3 points).

BR Automobile Assembler Index declined by 308.61 points or 3.41 percent to close at 8,747.58 points with total turnover of 1.866 million shares.

BR Cement Index plunged by 311.1 points or 5.94 percent to close at 4,930.19 points with 19.850 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index decreased by 212.01 points or 2.12 percent to close at 9,801.29 points with 11.969 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index fell by 211.01 points or 3.65 percent to close at 5,574.56 points with 12.630 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index lost 91.88 points or 2.25 percent to close at 3,991.71 points with 17.274 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 3,205.19 points, down 194.25 points or 5.71 percent with 59.521 million shares.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that stocks fell across-the-board on global equity selloff and uncertainty over the SBP policy announcement on Tuesday.

He said FATF decision over keeping Pakistan in grey list on unmet targets until June 2022 and record surge in global crude oil prices likely to impact current account balance played a catalyst role in record bearish close.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022

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