Stock market loses 250 points amid political uncertainty

KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) lost traction for the fifth straight session on Wednesday amid political uncertainty, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index losing 250.73 points (-0.39 percent) to close at 63,919.84 points.
The market opened on a negative note but turned positive after switching between the red and green territories for the half an hour trading. Later, the bulls controlled the market for the next four hours.
However, the Peshawar High Court’s decision to declare “illegal” the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision to revoke the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s ‘bat’ electoral symbol and reject its intra-party polls was not hailed by the market. Soon after the announcement of the verdict, the indices started coming down and the benchmark index shed around 565 points during the last 80-minute trading.
The benchmark index traded in a range of 677.31 points, showing an intraday high of 64,550.94 points and an intraday low of 63,873.63 points. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index gained 57.74 points (+0.13 percent) to close at 43,192.36 points. However, the KMI All Share Islamic Index shed 75.13 points (-0.24 percent) to close at 31,577.87 points.
Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index increased by 82.91 million shares to 336.52 million shares against 253.61 million traded in the previous session. Similarly, the overall market volumes increased by 187.18 million shares to 636.17 million shares against 448.99 million shares traded a session earlier.
Among scrips, KEL topped the volumes with 151.25 million shares (around 24 percent of total traded volumes), followed by HASCOL (67.98 million) and WTL (42.07 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included KEL, HASCOL, WTL, PRL, and PIAA, which formed over 51 percent of total volumes.
A total of 360 companies traded shares in the stock exchange against 349 in the previous session, out of which shares of 154 closed up, shares of 183 companies closed down while shares of 23 companies remained unchanged. A total of 95 companies traded shares in the KSE-100 Index against the same number of companies in the previous session, out of which share prices of 35 companies closed up, 58 companies closed down and two remained unchanged.
The number of total trades increased to 202,199 from 177,100 recorded in the previous session, while the value traded increased by Rs5.70 billion to Rs17.98 against Rs12.28 billion in the previous session.
In terms of rupee, PAKT remained the top gainer with an increase of Rs79 (+7.44 percent) per share, closing at Rs1,141. The runner-up remained PSMC, the share price of which climbed up by Rs58.32 (+7.5 percent) to Rs835.88. RMPL remained the top loser with a decrease of Rs448 (-4.48 percent) per share, closing at Rs9,550, followed by HPL, the share price of which fell by Rs40.8 (-3.04 percent) to close at Rs1,300 per share.
The major sectors taking the index towards south were commercial banks (122 points), fertilizer (78 points), cement (29 points), food and personal care (18 points), power generation and distribution (14 points), investment bank/ investment companies/ securities companies (13 points), pharmaceuticals (8 points), and chemicals (6 points).
Ten major companies depriving the index of points remained MEBL (27 points), ENGRO (25 points), BAHL (23 points), EFERT (17 points), and UBL (9 points), DAWH (8 points), and FFC, LUCK, HUBC and DGKC (6 points each).- TLTP