PSX under the hammering belt: BRIndex100 sheds more weight

Pakistan Stock Exchange Wednesday witnessed a bearish trend due to panic selling after Iran's missile attack on US-led forces in Iraq.

BRIndex100 lost 75.38 points or 1.72 percent to close at 4,318.52 points. BRIndex100 touched intraday high of 4,394.99 and intraday low of 4,298.40 points. Volumes stood at 254.512 million shares.

BRIndex30 decreased by 469.58 points or 2.03 percent to close at 22,671.13 points with a turnover of 181.619 million shares.

The KSE-100 Index declined by 546.90 points or 1.31 percent to close at 41,357.57 points. Daily trading volumes increased to 280.071 million shares as compared to 206.892 million shares traded Tuesday.

The market capitalization declined by Rs 88 billion to Rs 7.820 trillion. Out of total 353 active scrips, 292 closed in negative, only 42 in positive while the value of 19 stocks remained unchanged.

K-Electric was the volume leader with 39.458 million shares. However, it lost Re 0.15 to close at Rs 4.43 followed by Bank of Punjab that gained Re 0.07 to close at Rs 11.81 with 38.190 million shares. Bhanero Textile and Bata Pak were the top gainers with Rs 19.00 and Rs 16.00, respectively to close at Rs 899.00 and Rs 1,956.00. Indus Motor Co and Sapphire Textile were the top losers with Rs 48.57 and Rs 35.50, respectively to close at Rs 1,028.78 and Rs 962.83.

BR Automobile Assembler Index declined by 178.05 points or 2.94 percent to close at 5,887.22 points with total turnover of 1.960 million shares.

BR Cement Index lost 27.47 points or 0.73 percent to close at 3,725.46 points with 26.949 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index decreased by 125.69 points or 1.28 percent to close at 9,684.21 points with 54.925 million shares. BR Power Generation and Distribution Index plunged by 126.08 points or 2.21 percent to close at 5,570.60 points with 44.935 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index fell by 67.97 points or 1.38 percent to close at 4,853.84 points with 24.215 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 990.79 points, down 33.19 points or 3.24 percent with 23.665 million shares.

Maaz Mulla at JS Global Capital said that geopolitical uncertainty remained high after Iran launched attacks on US-led forces in Iraq, raising fears of a wider war in the Middle East. Resultantly, Pakistan equities started on a negative note and led the KSE-100 Index to an intra-day low of negative 730 points before closing down 547 points at 41,357 level.

Overall, the market came under the hammering belt as investors opted to reduce positions where HBL (down 3.8 percent), PPL (down 2.4 percent), HUBC (down 2.0 percent), FFC (down 2.3 percent), OGDC (down 0.7 percent), POL (down 1.4 percent), UBL (down 0.3 percent), ISL (down 4.9 percent), ASTL (down 5.0 percent) and NBP (down 4.0 percent) were major laggards of the day.