PSX witnesses bloodbath

KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Monday witnessed a bloodbath due to panic selling after ‘unexpected’ interest rate increase of 100pbs.

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) raised interest rates by 100 basis points during the post-close session of the previous business day, shaking investor confidence.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index plunged by 865.39 points or 2.02 percent and closed at 42,071.34 points. The KSE-100 Index dropped below 42,000-level to hit 41,964.94 points intraday low.

The daily trading volumes on ready counter increased to 244.355 million shares as compared to 177.297 million shares traded on last Friday while total daily traded value on ready counter increased to Rs 6.970 billion against previous session’s Rs 6.053 billion.

BRIndex100 decreased by 96.55 points or 2.23 percent to close at 4,228.07 points with total daily turnover of 202.435 million shares.

BRIndex30 declined by 454.6 points or 2.8 percent to close at 15,805.54 points with total daily trading volumes of 145.083 million shares.

Foreign investors however remained net buyers of shares worth $1.057 million. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 122 billion to Rs 6.732 trillion. Out of total 350 active scrips, 294 closed in negative and only 47 in positive while the value of 9 stocks remained unchanged.

K-Electric was the volume leader with 29.019 million shares however lost Rs 0.17 to close at Rs 2.60 followed by WorldCall Telecom that inched down by Rs 0.06 to close at Rs 1.36 with 22.517 million shares. Dewan Motors closed at Rs 11.87, down Rs 0.06 with 13.788 million shares.

Nestle Pakistan and Mehmood Textile were the top gainers increasing by Rs 84.00 and Rs 54.00 respectively to close at Rs 5850.00 and Rs 860.00 while Gatron Industries and Khyber Tobacco were the top losers declining by Rs 28.60 and Rs 28.32 respectively to close at Rs 353.40 and Rs 391.70.

“A bloodbath session was witnessed at the PSX,” an analyst at Arif Habib Limited said.

The State Bank of Pakistan ‘unexpectedly’ raised interest rates by 100 basis points and as anticipated, the benchmark KSE-100 Index opened in the negative zone and shed 972.79 points in the intraday. Investor participation remained active throughout the day, with 3rd tier stocks seeing the most activity.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Cement (down 204.7 points), E&P (down 114.8 points), Commercial Banks (down 110.1 points), Fertilizer (down 78.4 points) and Technology & Communication (down 53.5 points).

BR Automobile Assembler Index declined by 222.53 points or 2.51 percent to close at 8,654.89 points with total turnover of 14.545 million shares.

BR Cement Index plunged by 257.82 points or 5.76 percent to close at 4,216.38 points with 23.203 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index decreased by 104.35 points or 1.23 percent to close at 8,393.65 points with 8.162 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index lost 65.63 points or 0.98 percent to close at 6,599.12 points with 36.791 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index fell by 87.7 points or 2.25 percent to close at 3,818.01 points with 22.785 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 4,812.86 points, down 82.4 points or 1.68 percent with 53.364 million shares.

Mubashir Anis Naviwala at JS Global Capital said that bloodbath was witnessed at the local bourse as KSE100 index dropped to an intraday low of 41,963 points.

However, the index partially recovered towards the end of the trading session closing at 42,071, down 865 points compared to the previous session.

Volumes stood at 244 million shares where KEL (down 6.1 percent), WTL (down 4.2 percent), DFML (down 0.5 percent), HASCOL (down 3.0 percent) and CNERGY (down 4.1 percent) were the major contributors.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022