Market sheds 524 points on circular debt plan rumours

KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) snapped a four-day winning streak on Thursday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index losing 524.43 points (-0.81 percent) to close at 64,298 points.
The market opened on a positive note, breached the 65,000 points level and stayed above this level during the first two hours’ trading. However, rumours spread in the market that the government’s circular debt management plan would require the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) nod. This irked investors as they felt that the plan would face further delays.
As a result, index-heavy OGDC and PPL came under excessive selling pressure and both closed near their lower locks. As both of the securities were among the top four volume leaders, they brought the indices in the red. The selling pressure in OGDC and PPL was also accompanied by profit-taking in other sectors after the KSE-100 showed growth over the last four sessions.
Meanwhile, caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar has directed the Ministry of Energy to prepare and submit a comprehensive and sustainable plan after consultation with the Finance Ministry to reduce the circular debt of power and gas sectors. Moreover, hopes of a rate cut in the upcoming Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting on Monday were renewed after the cut-off yield on short-term government securities surprisingly declined up to 62 basis points in the auction held on Wednesday.
The benchmark index traded in a range of 1.033.17 points, showing an intraday high of 65,213.61 points and an intraday low of 64,180.44 points. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index shed 407.39 points (-0.94 percent) to close at 43,382.42 points. Similarly, the KMI All Share Islamic Index shed 395.90 points (-1.25 percent) to close at 31,641.01 points.
Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index increased by 12.22 million to 290.53 million shares against 278.31 million shares in the previous session. However, the overall market volumes decreased by 18.29 million shares to 460.69 million shares against 478.98 million shares traded a session earlier.
Among scrips, OGDC topped the volumes with 49.68 million shares, followed by KEL (48.97 million) and HASCOL (38.81 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included OGDC, KEL, HASCOL, PPL, and FFBL, which formed over 41 percent of total volumes.
A total of 352 companies traded shares in the stock exchange against 349 in the previous session, out of which shares of 101 closed up, shares of 233 companies closed down while shares of 18 companies remained unchanged. A total of 96 companies traded shares in the KSE-100 Index against 94 companies in the previous session, out of which share prices of 33 companies closed up, 60 companies closed down and three remained unchanged.
The number of total trades decreased to 201,426 from 207,529 a session earlier, while the value traded increased by Rs2.75 billion to Rs25.25 billion from Rs22.50 billion a session earlier.
In terms of rupee, PAKT remained the top gainer with an increase of Rs57 (+5.54 percent) per share, closing at Rs1,085. The runner-up remained LCI, the share price of which climbed up by Rs55.43 (+7.5 percent) to Rs794.52. RMPL remained the top loser with a decrease of Rs199.98 (-2.22 percent) per share, closing at Rs8,800.01, followed by PMPK, the share price of which fell by Rs53.88 (-7.38 percent) to close at Rs676.12 per share.-TLTP