KARACHI: It was another volatile day at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), with the benchmark KSE-100 Index slipping below the 29,000-mark during the early trading hours, triggering a sixth ‘market halt’ in the last nine sessions.
Analysts believe the investors’ confidence remained low on Thursday due to a rise in the tally of coronavirus cases and the subsequent lockdown-like situation in the country.
According to media reports, Pakistan’s current account deficit declined by 71pc to $2.84 billion in the first eight months of the current fiscal year. The deficit stood at $9.81 billion during the same period last year. On a month-on-month basis, CAD fell by 61pc to $210 million.
Moreover, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has offered Pakistan $350 million to fight the coronavirus pandemic. With this offer, total lending provided by the ADB and World Bank now stands at $588 million or Rs93 billion.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index lost 1,963.61 points to record its intraday low at 28,452.44. However, as trading resumed after a 45-halt, the index turned positive and recovered all losses to mark its intraday high at 30,515.62 (+99.57 points). Keeping most of the recovered points intact, it ended lower by 286.22 points at 30,129.83.
Among other indices, the KMI-30 Index plunged 583.70 points to settle at 46,347.02, while the KSE All Share Index ended lower by 283.00 points at 21,685.43. Out of the total traded shares, 96 advanced and 217 declined.
The overall market volumes inflated from 186.65 million in the previous session to 307.78 million. K-Electric Limited (KEL +5.56pc), Unity Foods Limited (UNITY -9.23pc) and The Bank of Punjab (BOP +4.25pc) topped the volume chart, exchanging 22.14 million, 19.28 million and 18.63 million shares, respectively.
Fertilizer (+215.13 points) and banking (+114.68 points) sectors worked hard to rescue the index from bloodbath. On the other hand, cement (-179.42 points), power generation & distribution (-103.73 points) and oil & gas marketing (-55.42 points) sectors dented the index the most.
