BRIndex100 plummets

Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed heavy pressure due to selling in almost all sectors Monday. BRIndex100 lost 155.8 points or 3.73 percent to close at 4,026.17 points. BRIndex-100 touched intraday high of 4,187.31 and intraday low of 4,014.38 points. Volumes stood at 171.597 million shares. BRIndex30 declined by 906.19 points or 4.47 percent to close at 19,372.14 points with total turnover of 124.257 million shares.
The benchmark KSE-100 index plunged by 1328.06 points or 3.39 percent to close at 37,898.29 points. Due to selling pressure, daily trading volumes increased to 186.005 million shares as compared to 154.094 million shares traded Friday.
Foreign investors remained net sellers of shares worth $7.5 million shares. The market capitalization declined by Rs 239 billion to Rs 7.827 trillion. Out of total 385 active scrips, 341 closed in negative, only 30 in positive while the value of 14 stocks remained unchanged.
Bank of Punjab was the volume leader with 18.389 million shares. However, it lost Re 0.85 to close at Rs 10.12 followed by K-Electric that declined by Re 0.23 to close at Rs 4.77 with 12.185 million shares. Unilever Foods and Island Textile were the top gainers with Rs 165.00 and Rs 75.00, respectively to close at Rs 7,100.00 and Rs 1,848.00. Rafhan Maize and Bata Pak were the top losers with Rs 378.00 and Rs 75.00, respectively to close at Rs 7,191.00 and Rs 1,720.00.
BR Commercial Banks Index decreased by 290.52 points or 3.51 percent to close at 7,989.01 points with total turnover of 34.149 million shares. BR Cement Index declined by 203.26 points or 4.86 percent to close at 3,975.27 pointts with 20.255 million shares BR Oil and Gas Index lost 162.61 points or 3.2 percent to close at 4,924.02 points with 8.690 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 1,062.73 points, down 29.67 points or 2.72 percent with 21.281 million shares. BR Power Generation and Distribution Index plunged by 188.95 points or 3.4 percent to close at 5,373.15 points with 16.045 million shares.
Danish Ladhani at JS Global Capital said that the KSE-100 Index continued on its downward trajectory shedding over 1,328 points during the intraday trading. The index made an intraday high of plus 71 and a low of minus 1,457 points, respectively.
This volatility in the market was due to the reports of a delay in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout package till December. All the sectors came under the hammer where Financials, Cements, Power and Energy stocks closed in the red. The top stocks, HBL (down 5.0 percent), UBL (down 5.0 percent), LUCK (down 5.0 percent) DGKC (down 5.0 percent) closed in the lower circuit, respectively. The major heavyweights namely, HBL (down 5.0 percent), PPL (down 2.85 percent), OGDC (down 2.38 percent), ENGRO (down 2.76 percent), MCB (down 1.19 percent), UBL (down 5.0 percent), FFC (down 4.77 percent) and POL (down 3.88 percent) cumulatively contributed minus 491 points to the index.
"Moving forward, we expect investor's sentiment will remain dull," he said. Therefore, the KSE-100 performance will likely remain under pressure amid selling from foreign investors, he added.