KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed bloodshed on Monday, with the KSE-100 Index plunging over 1,000 points intraday amid political unrest.
Global equity markets, on the other hand, showed a positive trend, whereas crude oil prices moved north from the previous close; WTI crude price appreciating 0.55pc to $40.44 while Brent crude price increasing 0.28pc to $42.53.
“Last week’s rollover session had its trickle down impact on today’s trading as well, primarily due to low settlement ratios. On top of it, the arrest of Opposition Leader Shehbaz Sharif also caused ripples in the market, resulting in the index plunging deep in the red,” said a report issued by AHL Ltd.
MARKET SUMMARY
The benchmark KSE-100 Index, which remained on the fringes for most part of the day, plunged by 1,056.41 points during the closing hours, marking its intraday low at 40,644.82. It settled lower by 960.28 points at 40,740.95.
Among other indices, the KMI-30 Index declined 1,401.42 points or 2.11pc to end at 65,157.19, while the KSE All Share Index dropped 622.48 points, settling at 29,013.63.
The overall market volumes declined from 435 million shares in the previous session to 407.2 million shares (-6pc). Average traded value also declined by 7pc, from $92.9 million to $86.1 million. Hascol Petroleum Ltd (HASCOL -6.44pc), TRG Pakistan Ltd (TRG +1.13pc) and K-Electric Ltd (KEL -0.24pc) led the volume chart, exchanging 48.69 million, 34.54 million and 30.21 million shares, respectively.
Sectors that painted the benchmark index red included banking (-227.28 points), cement (-137.14 points) and fertilizer (-75.01 points). Among the companies, Habib Bank Ltd (HBL -78.81 points), Mari Petroleum Company Ltd (MARI -46.52 points) and Bank AL Habib Ltd (BAHL -43.54 points) dented the index the most.
Shedding 7.50pc from its cumulative market capitalization, the refinery sector ended as the session’s top loser, with Byco Petroleum Pakistan Ltd (BYCO -7.81pc), Attock Refinery Ltd (ATRL -6.77pc), National Refinery Ltd (NRL -7.27pc) and Pakistan Refinery Ltd (PRL -7.32pc) closing in the negative.
On the financial side, Shifa International Hospitals Ltd (SHFA -7.50pc) recorded earnings per share of Rs8.18 for FY20 (Rs14.25 in FY19), Gul Ahmed Textile Mills Ltd (GATM -4.39pc) posted an EPS of -Rs1.12 (Rs8.44 in FY19), Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (OGDC -0.01pc) declared an EPS of Rs23.27 (Rs27.53 FY19), while At-Tahur Ltd (PREMA -3.65pc) announced an EPS of Rs0.34 (Rs1.69 in FY19).
