Worst-ever decline witnessed

Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed worst ever decline after 2008-09 due to panic selling on investor concern over deadly coronavirus spread. The market remained under severe selling pressure during the first four sessions however saw fresh buying on the last session of the outgoing week and closed on positive note on Friday.
BRIndex100 declined by 589.69 points on week-on-week basis to close at 3,125.44 points. Average daily trading volumes stood at 220.691 million shares. BRIndex30 plunged by 2942.36 points during this week to close at 15,439.11 points with average daily turnover of 168.996 million shares.
KSE-100 index sunk by 5,393.47 points, worst ever weekly decline after 2008-09 and closed at 30,667.41 points. Trading activities remained low during the week as the average daily volumes on ready counter decreased by 9.5 percent to 239.16 million shares as compared to previous week's average of 264.25 million shares. Average daily trading value declined by 32.3 percent to Rs 8.65 billion.
The foreign investors remained net sellers of equities worth $19.6 million during this week. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 888 billion or 13.1 percent during this week to stand at Rs 5.907 trillion.
"KSE-100 started the week with a massive selloff and increased concerns over growing cases of COVID-19 around the world," an analyst at AKD Securities said. Commodities also witnessed a slide on the back of decreasing demand projections whereas ongoing tussle between global oil players also took a toll on oil prices. That said, slight rebound was witnessed towards tail-end of the week as investors went after cheap valuations. Consequently, KSE-100 closed the week at 30,667 points, down 14.5 percent on week-on-week basis.
Laggards amongst AKD Securities' coverage universe were PIOC (down 32.2 percent), NML (down 32.2 percent), NCL (down 29.8 percent), CHCC (down 27.2 percent) and PAEL (down 26.9 percent).
An analyst at JS Global Capital said that the KSE-100 plunged by 15 percent to close at 30,667 levels, the largest percentage decline since the global financial crisis. This time, it has been a pandemic that plagued global economies, with Pakistan failing to become an exception.
Panic selling was triggered (leading to frequent halts along the way) by any news of surging cases of Coronavirus in Pakistan, lockdowns of shops/offices in major cities and companies deciding to employ a work-from-home formula to encourage self-isolation. Amid the gloom, oil took a battering, down 20 percent on week-on-week basis at $27/bbl (WTI), reaching multi-decade lows.
"On a much-needed positive note (if you could call it that), the current account deficit (CAD) shrank by 61 percent on month-on-months basis in February 2020", he said. More importantly, a pullback was also on the cards after the constant hammering and it was further boosted by news/rumours of an economic package that could be announced shortly by the government, he added.