The KSE-100 index on Friday registered heavy loss of 244.13 points and closed at 11,943.34 points due to panic-selling in the second half of trading session. The market opened on a positive note on the back of foreign investors' support. However, the momentum did not sustain due to absence of follow-up support and, at the end of first half, the index closed 10 points down.
In the second half, the market witnessed panic-selling due to investors' concerns over Pak-US relations and report on Moody's rating downgrade risk on Pakistan if it failed to address growing fiscal deficit. Trading volume, however, increased to 111.757 million shares as compared to 89.822 million shares traded on Thursday.
Market capitalisation declined by Rs 64 billion to Rs 3.236 trillion. Of 369 active scrips, 246 closed in negative and 102 in positive, while the values of 21 scrips remained unchanged. Lotte Pakistan PTA was the volume leader with 11.040 million shares. However, it lost Re 0.25 to close at Rs 15.93. Nishat Power declined by Re 0.49 to close at Rs 16.79 with 5.766 million shares. Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim decreased by Re 0.36 to close at Rs 40.85 with 5.681 million shares.
Nishat (Chunian) gained Re 0.17 to close at Rs 25.45 with 5.124 million shares. Azgard Nine lost Re 0.60 to close at Rs 10.32 with 4.688 million shares. Jahangir Siddiqui Co declined by Re 0.59 to close at Rs 10.39 with 4.430 million shares. Sui Southern Gas decreased by Re 0.62 to close at Rs 25.85 with 3.963 million shares. Dewan Salman lost Re 0.02 to close at Rs 2.98 with 3.311 million shares.
Fauji Fertiliser Co (FFC) declined by Rs 1.96 to close at Rs 149.24 with 3.172 million shares. Nishat Mills lost Rs 1.14 to close at Rs 63.91 with 2.838 million shares. Unilever Foods and Siemens Pak were the highest gainers increasing by Rs 63.81 and Rs 26.01 to close at Rs 1340.32 and Rs 1095.90 respectively, while Unilever Pak and Nestle Pakistan were the worst losers declining by Rs 195.03 and Rs 59.05 to close at Rs 4145.50 and Rs 3351.10 respectively.
Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Investment said that panic-selling was witnessed in scrips across the board after rumours on US threat on Pakistan ambassador to snap diplomatic ties on demand for Raymond Davis's release. He said that the report on Moody's rating downgrade risk on Pakistan, if it failed to address growing fiscal deficit, further affected the market sentiment and the investors opted to offload their holdings despite healthy earning announcements in banking sector.