Selling pressure at PSX, KSE-100 down over 900 points

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) reflected negativity witnessed in the global markets, as the benchmark KSE-100 index shed over 900 points during trading on Tuesday.

The KSE-100 started the day with a strong selling pressure that largely continued throughout the session.

At close, the benchmark index settled at 74,666.66, down by 908.60 points or 1.20%.

Selling pressure was witnessed in key sectors including cement, chemical, commercial banks, fertiliser, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs and refineries.

Index-heavy stocks including PRL, OGDC, PPL, HBL, MEBL, and NBP were in the red.

“The bearish sentiment at the local bourse is being driven by negativity in the neighbouring countries’ market,” Sana Tawfik, an analyst at Arif Habib Limited (AHL), told Business Recorder.

“Local economic indicators have been positive, with the inflation rate showing a significant decline, making the case for a rate cut stronger,” added Tawfik.

On Monday, PSX witnessed a negative session as its benchmark KSE-100 Index failed to sustain a bullish beginning and closed lower by over 300 points to settle at 75,575.26.

In a key development, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday arrived in Shenzhen, China for a five-day official visit during which he will hold meetings with corporate executives of leading Chinese companies dealing in oil and gas, energy, ICT, and emerging technologies.

Nearby, Indian stocks tanked the most in four years on Tuesday, as vote counting suggested Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led alliance is unlikely to win an overwhelming majority as predicted by exit polls.

Modi’s bloc looked set to secure a majority in early vote counting in the general election on Tuesday, but the numbers were well short of the landslide predicted in exit polls.

The Nifty index dropped as much as 5.43% to 22,000.60 points while the BSE index fell to a low of 72,337.34 points, down 5.4% on the day.

That was the biggest fall since April 2020 and pulled stocks sharply away from records highs struck a day earlier.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee registered marginal improvement, appreciating 0.02% against the US dollar in the inter-bank market on Tuesday. At close, the local unit settled at 278.30, a gain of Re0.06 against the greenback, as per the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

Volume on the all-share index decreased to 414.48 million from 441.26 million a session ago.

The value of shares declined to Rs18.31 billion from Rs18.63 billion in the previous session.

Fauji Cement was the volume leader with 36.62 million shares, followed by K-Electric Ltd with 35.2 million shares, and WorldCall Telecom with 21.70 million shares.

Shares of 452 companies were traded on Monday, of which 99 registered an increase, 280 recorded a fall, while 73 remained unchanged.