LAHORE: Market struggled to keep its volumes as the index declined since the very start of the day. The market falling below the 39,000 level closed at 38784.66 points, a 17-month low, shedding -1122.66 points or 2.8 per cent on Thursday. The KSE‐100 index was 38,368 points on July 11, 2016.
An amalgamation of local politics where opposition political parties are allegedly planning a sit-in against Model Town Tragedy, geopolitics where US decision to make Jerusalem the capital of Israel has sparked outrage in the Muslim world, domestic individuals panicking over upcoming change in trading Circuit Breaker rules, along with overnight dip in crude oil prices have all culminated towards this sell-off, we believe. Volumes increased 9 per cent d/d while value traded soared 58 per cent.
KSE 100 index market cap in dollar terms is literally back to 2008 levels when the index was circa 15,000 points and our market cap peaked at $ 75.3 billion, KSE 100 was 15,472 points on April 4, 2008, before the 2008 crash. On Thursday the index stands at 38,784 while our market cap in dollar terms is $ 78.2 million.
Top 10 index point decliners were HBL (-3.9 per cent), UBL (-4.8 per cent), ENGRO (-3.4 per cent), OGDC (-2.2 per cent), PSO (-5 per cent), POL (-3.2 per cent), FFC (-3.8 per cent), HUBC (-3.1 per cent), MCB (-2.3 per cent) & LUCK (-2.3 per cent); withholding 523 points, while 8 stocks closed in the green adding just 18 points.
While talking to Profit, Adnan Sheikh, an analyst at leading brokerage topline securities wondered if KSE 100 is a good buy or bye bye at this level.
