LAHORE: The air of anticipation was there as the KSE 100 opened its doors for trading on Monday. And pretty soon it was evident that the plunge, a steep one at that, would be the order of the day.
By mid-day, the fall was already above 1,000 points – the second such in successive weeks thus far.
The bears were all over the market, as 2.5 per cent of market capitalisation was lost in a jiffy, drowning the board in a sea of red with scrips in green and blue visible but only on distant horizons.
The usual hot shots on the Index – the sectors falling under banking, cement, and oil – took a serious battering. The head honchos of three private banks summoned to the dock by the Supreme Court over suspect heavy transactions abroad benefiting Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur, with cash transacted said to be in the vicinity of a whopping Rs35 billion, acted as a major catalyst, exacerbating the situation in a market already in uncertain straits owing to the July 25 national elections.
Two of the three Banks asked to appear before the apex court – Summit Bank and UBL – were the major losers, shedding almost 14 per cent and 4.5 per cent in value in a matter of a couple of hours in intra-day trading.
Barely past high-noon, the KSE-100 Index had nosedived to below the 40,000 mark, at 39,230 level – a fall of 1,054 points, tantamount to 2.6 per cent of the overall value, with no sign of relief, no shred of good news emanating from any quarter.
After falling more than a 1,000 points during the first session, value hunters stepped in and resorted to taking exposure in oversold names available at dirt cheap multiples. After hitting its recent peak of 44,333 points on June 7, 2018, the KSE 100 index is down 11.38 per cent in just 20 sessions.
With Zardari too pulled into the accountability ring for all intents and purposes, and Nawaz Sharif set to return on the last trading day of the week, there is scant hope that the market shall witness an uptick in the short order. One would indeed be surprised if things didn’t get worse before they eventually got better – but the likelihood of turbulence turning to calm and assuming a measure of vibrancy is only likely to happen not before July 25.
Volume and turnover painted a mixed picture amid flattish volume and a sizeable jump in turnover (-0.34 per cent and 59.5 per cent on day on day basis). Heavy participation at current levels could be due to selling exhaustion.
Major drag to market performance came from health care (-4.14 per cent), consumer discretionary (-3.87 per cent), materials (-3.16 per cent), industrials (-3.09 per cent) and utilities (-2.73 per cent). Heavy losses in SEARL (-5 per cent), NML (-4.27 per cent), INDU (-4.44 per cent), THALL (-4.97 per cent), ENGRO (-3.22 per cent), LUCK (-3.43 per cent), DAWH (-4.92 per cent), DGKC (-5 per cent), FFC (-1.75 per cent), FCCL (-4.99 per cent), ISL (-4.90 per cent), MLCF (-4.99 per cent), FFBL (-4.95 per cent), EFERT (-1.18 per cent), MTL (-2.92 per cent) and SNGP (-4.98 per cent) along with so many others kept the KSE 100 index trading in deep red. Financials (-2.58 per cent) weighed down heavily on index performance amid panic selling in UBL (-4.83 per cent), HBL (-2.49 per cent) and MCB (-2.54 per cent).
Moreover, Pakistan has launched the Remote Sensing Satellite-1 (PRSS-1) from China to enable Pakistan to meet its imagery requirements in the areas of land mapping, agriculture classification and assessment, urban and rural planning, environmental monitoring, natural disaster management and water resource management.
Market participation for the KSE 100 index stood flattish at 75.60 million shares from 75.86 million in the previous session (-0.34 per cent on day on day basis). Major contribution to total market volume came from KEL (-5.38 per cent), BOP (-4.63 per cent) and LOTCHEM (-5.09 per cent) churning 26.19 million shares out of the All Share volume of 123.6 million shares.
However, daily traded value for the KSE 100 index increased to $36.48 million from $22.87 million in the previous session (+59.5 per cent on day on day basis); UBL ($4.58 million), DGKC ($3.08 million) and ENGRO ($2.48 million) were among top contributors from traded value perspective.
Major contribution to the KSE 100 index downside came from UBL (-4.83 per cent), HBL (-2.49 per cent), ENGRO (-3.22 per cent), POL (-3.26 per cent) and LUCK (-3.43 per cent) taking away 285 points. The KSE 100 index is 4 per cent above its 52-week low of 37,736.73 reached on December 12, 2017, and 17 per cent below its 52-week high of 47,241.17 reached on August 4, 2017.
Technically speaking, the KSE 100 index is now trading deep inside the support cluster (39,200-39,600) as panic selling reigned supreme in Monday’s session. While major supports are at 200 week EMA (38,500), 52 week low (37,736) & 50 month EMA (37,690).
