KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed its highest ever day-on-day points decline on Tuesday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index losing 2,534.12 points (-4.11 percent) to close at 59,170.97 points.
Prior to this bloodbath, the benchmark index had witnessed its highest ever day-on-day points decline on March 16, 2020 when it had shed 2,375.97 points.
Similarly, the index shed 2,371.64 points on Tuesday last (December 19, 2023), which has now become its third highest ever day-on-day points decline. The benchmark index shed 4,424.93 points last week, closing the second straight week in the red. The index has lost 7,923 points since December 13.
The market opened on a negative note amid heavy selling pressure. The indices remained in the red territory throughout the session. The quarter-end as well as year-end, besides political uncertainty in the country, played a major role in bringing the indices down. Additionally, unconfirmed reports that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has ruled out ‘non-cash adjustments’ as a way of clearing circular debt stock irked sentiment.
Topline Securities CEO Mohammed Sohail said the KSE-100 Index is seeing a fast, but much-needed correction after a non-stop rally. “High Leveraged position with year-end affecting market trends,” he added in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
The benchmark index traded in a range of 2,607.74 points, showing an intraday high of 61,634.55 points and an intraday low of 59,026.81 points. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index shed 1,563.22 points (-3.94 percent) to close at 39,718.76 points. Similarly, the KMI All Share Islamic Index shed 1,264.10 points (-4.38 percent) to close at 28,888.61 points.
Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index increased by 62.93 million shares to 396.48 million shares against 333.55 million traded in the previous session. Similarly, the overall market volumes decreased by 0.69 million shares to 670.86 million shares against 671.55 million shares traded a session earlier.
Among scrips, KEL topped the volumes with 97.36 million shares, followed by WTL (72.52 million) and BOP (41.01 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included KEL, WTL, BOP, CNERGY, and FFL, which formed over 43 percent of total volumes.
A total of 366 companies traded shares in the stock exchange against 352 in the previous session, out of which shares of 43 closed up, shares of 312 companies closed down while shares of 11 companies remained unchanged. A total of 97 companies traded shares in the KSE-100 Index against 96 in the previous session, out of which share prices of 5 companies closed up, 90 companies closed down and two remained unchanged.
The number of total trades decreased to 194,452 from 206,091 in the previous session, while the value traded increased by Rs3.42 billion to Rs17.13 against Rs13.71 billion in the previous session.
In terms of rupee, SFL remained the top gainer with an increase of Rs109.12 (+7.49 percent) per share, closing at Rs1,566. The runner-up remained IBFL, the share price of which climbed up by Rs23.45 (+6.85 percent) to Rs363.9. UPFL remained the top loser with a decrease of Rs355 (-1.66 percent) per share, closing at Rs21,000, followed by NESTLE, the share price of which fell by Rs106 (-1.34 percent) to close at Rs7,800 per share.
The major sectors taking the index towards south were oil & gas exploration companies (496 points), commercial banks (381 points), power generation & distribution (251 points), cement (211 points), fertilizer (198 points), oil & gas marketing companies (170 points), technology & communication (133 points), refinery (77 points), chemical (69 points), pharmaceutical (63 points), miscellaneous (60 points),automobile assemblers and textile composite (58 points each), and food and personal care product (57 points).
Ten major companies depriving the index of points remained HUBC (103 points), PPL (96 points), OGDC (90 points), HBL (77 points), POL (48 points), PSO (47 points), MARI (42 points), TRG (39 points), EFERT (38 points), and ENGRO (35 points).
The major sectors taking the index towards north remained synthetic & rayon (12 points). Ten major companies adding points to the index remained IBFL (7 points), SFL, MEHT and HABSM (4 points each), MCB (3 points), GWLC and GVGL (2 points each), and EFUL, JLICL and FATIMA (one point each). – TLTP