KARACHI: A bearish trend continued on Pakistan Stock Exchange on Friday with extremely low trading activity due to selling on investor concerns over prevailing economic and political situation in the country.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index plunged by 434.05 points or 1.08 percent and closed below 40,000 psychological level at 39,942.05 points. The index hit 40,456.22 points intraday high and 39,923.10 points intraday low .
Trading activity remained extremely low as total daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 46.728 million shares as compared to 148.452 million shares traded on previous session while total daily traded value on ready counter declined to Rs 1.294 billion against previous session’s Rs 3.917 billion.
BRIndex100 decreased by 43.76 points or 1.07 percent to close at 4,039.95 points with total daily turnover of 41.146 million shares.
BRIndex30 declined by 237.76 points or 1.62 percent to close at 14,413.45 points with total daily trading volumes of 28.630 million shares.
Foreign investors however remained net buyers of shares worth $425,720. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 65 billion to Rs 6.107 trillion. Out of total 290 active scrips, 194 closed in negative and only 77 in positive while the value of 19 stocks remained unchanged.
WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 4.011 million shares and closed at Rs 1.20, down Rs 0.01 followed by Telecard Limited that lost Rs 0.51 to close at Rs 7.06 with 3.877 million shares. TLP Properties fell by Rs 0.35 to close at Rs 14.70 with 1.839 million shares.
Nestle Pakistan and Sapphire Fiber were the top gainers increasing by Rs 99.95 and Rs 71.60 respectively to close at Rs 5100.10 and Rs 1026.39 while Pak Services and Pak Tobacco were the top losers declining by Rs 89.00 and Rs 52.50 respectively to close at Rs 1099.00 and Rs 665.10.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the PSX concluded the week with a negative session. The market started off in the red zone and continued to trade in the negative territory for the majority of the trading session, shedding 453.21 points during the day due to the prolonged SLA between the government and IMF to unlock 9th tranche of the Extended Fund Facility. Investors’ participation remained dull throughout the session drying up volumes in the main board while side board scrips remained the volume leaders.
Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P (down 61.7 points), Technology & Communication (down 60.3 points), Miscellaneous (down 47.9 points), Commercial Banks (down 47.3 points) and Cement (down 40.2 points).
BR Automobile Assembler Index lost 41.57 points or 0.55 percent to close at 7,463.58 points with total turnover of 923,414 shares.
BR Cement Index declined by 56.69 points or 1.46 percent to close at 3,818.73 points with 4.586 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index inched down by 42.24 points or 0.51 percent to close at 8,173.78 points with 2.582 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index fell by 55.25 points or 0.78 percent to close at 7,021.48 points with 2.199 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index decreased by 55.72 points or 1.42 percent to close at 3,879.58 points with 4.872 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index plunged by 68.86 points or 1.67 percent to close at 4,060.80 points with 10.597 million shares. Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that stocks fell sharply lower after Government Treasury Bond yields rose to 22 percent amid expected rise in key policy rate next month. He said reports of delays over completion of the IMF conditions for ensuring fund receipts from supporting friendly countries and slump in global crude oil prices played a catalyst role in bearish close.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023