Market cap dips Rs112.7bn in two days
KARACHI
Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) remained lackluster and bearish amid political chaos in the country, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index shedding another 298.86 points (-0.72 percent) to close at 41,074.95 points in a low-volume session on Wednesday.
Continuing with its losing streak for the third straight day, the market opened on a sharp negative note and shed around 300 points. The market recovered its intraday loss and turned to green in the next four hours but excessive selling brought the index back in the reds. The selling spree continued for the next one hour, ending the session with a loss of around 300 points.
The issues and political noise following former prime minister Imran Khan’s arrest, rupee’s massive depreciation against the US dollar, high inflation, depleting foreign exchange reserves, and economic uncertainty pushed the market lower.
The KSE-100 Index moved in a range of 365.77 points, showing an intraday high of 41,407.09 and a low of 41,041.32 points. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index shed 168.25 points (-0.62 percent) to close at 27,185.62 points, while KMI All Share Islamic Index shed 131.22 points (-0.67 percent) to close at 19,605.26 points.
A total of 324 companies traded shares in the stock exchange as compared to 350 a day earlier. Out of traded companies, shares of 101 closed up, shares of 203 closed down while shares of 20 companies remained unchanged. A total of 95 companies traded shares in the KSE-100 Index against 91 a day earlier, out of which 23 closed up, 71 closed down and one remained unchanged.
The overall market volumes decreased by 103.87 million to 99.18 million shares against 203.05 million shares a session earlier. Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index remained 53.04 million against 104.57 million a session earlier, showing a decrease of 51.53 million shares.
The number of total trades decreased by 37,870 to 58,349 against 96,219 a session earlier, while the value traded decreased by 2.54 billion to Rs3.3 billion. Overall market capitalisation decreased by Rs54.93 billion, making a total loss of Rs112.7 billion in the stock exchange since Khan’s arrest a day earlier.
Among scrips, BAFL topped the volumes with 4.03 million shares, followed by KEL (3.88 million) and MLCF (3.31 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included BAFL, KEL, MLCF, SNGP and OGDC, which formed around 18 percent of total volumes.
In terms of rupee, NESTLE remained the top gainer and witnessed an increase of Rs23.28 (+0.4 percent) per share, closing at Rs5,800. The runner-up remained MUREB, the share price of which climbed up by Rs7.99 (+2.78 percent) to Rs294.99. PSEL remained the top loser in terms of rupee and witnessed a decrease of Rs57.99 (-7.35 percent) per share, closing at Rs731, followed by RMPL, the share price of which fell by Rs49.85 (-0.6 percent) to close at Rs8,199.9 per share.
The sectors taking the index towards south were commercial banks (76 points), oil & gas exploration companies (64 points), technology & communication (35 points), miscellaneous (32 points), and fertilizers (29 points). The index was deprived of points mostly by HBL (34 points), PSEL (32 points), SYS and OGDC (29 points each) and HUBC (19 points).
The sectors taking the index towards north were investment banks/ investment companies/ securities companies (10 points), cement (7 points), property (6 points) and transport (one point. The most points added to the index were by DAWH (9 points), JVDC (6 points), LUCK (4 points), LOTCHEM (3 points) and MUREB (2 points).
