KARACHI: After positive opening, Pakistan Stock Exchange on Monday closed in deep red with heavy losses due to panic selling during second half of the trading session before the announcement of monetary policy statement.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index plunged by 1,047.71 points or 1.44 percent and closed at 71,695.03 points. Initially, after positive opening, the index crossed historic level of 73,000 points for the first time in history and hit 73,300.75 points intra-day highest ever level however this trend could not continue due to selling pressure and the index dropped into negative zone to 71,602.94 points intra-day low level.
Trading activity however improved as total daily volumes on ready counter increased to 613.314 million shares as compared to 541.144 million shares traded on last Friday while total daily traded value on the ready counter increased to Rs 26.314 billion against previous session’s Rs 22.589 billion.
BRIndex100 decreased by 104.17 points or 1.37 percent to close at 7,521.93 points with total daily turnover of 493.526 million shares.
BRIndex30 declined by 411.88 points or 1.66 percent to close at 24,402.21 points with total daily trading volumes of 303.163 million shares.
Foreign investors however remained net buyers of shares worth $338,271. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 146 billion to stand at Rs 9.871 trillion. Out of total 385 active scrips, 231 closed in negative and 133 in positive while the value of 21 stocks remained unchanged.
Hascol Petroleum was the volume leader with 60.072 million shares and gained Rs 0.58 to close at Rs 8.11 followed by Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim that increased by Rs 1.84 to close at Rs 35.62 with 35.168 million shares. Pace (Pak) Limited inched up by Rs 0.74 to close at Rs 3.49 with 32.652 million shares.
Hallmark Company and Sazgar Engineering Works were the top gainers increasing by Rs 86.32 and Rs 31.33 respectively to close at Rs 1,239.14 and Rs 694.78 while Unilever Pakistan Foods and Nestle Pakistan were the top losers declining by Rs 600.21 and Rs 338.41 respectively to close at Rs 19,553.71 and Rs 7,484.20.
An analyst at Topline Securities said that Pakistan equities had a mixed day ahead of two key events scheduled in the Monday evening. Monetary Policy Committee is meeting to decide whether to keep “Status Quo” as far as interest rates goes or it’s about time to kick-off monetary easing to assist ailing economic activates in the backdrop of historic high interest rate environment.
Moreover, IMF Board of Directors are meeting to approve $1.1 billion tranche for Pakistan, post Staff Level approval, the country got last month.
Power, Fertilizer and E&P sectors contributed in the sell-off the most where HUBC, EFERT, FFC, OGDC and MARI lost 497 points. On the other side, FFBL, NATF and HINOON cumulatively added 71 points due to some buying interest witnessed in them.
BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 53.58 points or 0.34 percent to close at 15,753.25 points with total turnover of 22.972 million shares.
BR Cement Index declined by 144.13 points or 1.98 percent to close at 7,141.83 points with 47.307 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index decreased by 220.22 points or 1.15 percent to close at 18,899.69 points with 36.173 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index plunged by 377.67 points or 2.32 percent to close at 15,924.59 points with 56.208 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index fell by 86.00 points or 1.31 percent to close at 6,484.02 points with 79.788 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 3,895.06 points, down 13.66 points or 0.35 percent with 90.624 million shares.
Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said stocks closed sharply lower on SBP policy rate uncertainty ahead of Pak-IMF new loan talks.
He said institutional profit taking in selected over bought scrips and likely Government structural reforms for IMF new program to end subsidies in energy, fertilizer and gas sectors played a catalyst role in bearish close.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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