KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed bloodbath on the last trading session of the week, with the indices taking a beating amid late selling.
Global equity markets showed a mixed performance, whereas crude oil prices plunged further from the previous close; WTI crude price falling 3.85pc to $37.22 while Brent crude price dropping 3.81pc to $39.37.
“The stock market saw continuation of selling pressure due to a host of reasons, from political uncertainty to the spread of corona cases,” said a report issued by AHL Ltd. “Exploration & production stocks took a hammering following a sharp decline in international crude oil prices, whereas redemptions in mutual funds also prompted institutional sell-off.”
MARKET SUMMARY
The KSE-100 Index started the day on positive note, registering its intraday high at 40,838.92 after gaining 162.00 points before the midday break. It, however, failing to maintain its flight, plunging to its intraday low at 39,905.66 (-771.26 points) in the second half. The index finally settled lower by 606.09 points at 40,070.83.
Among other indices, the KMI-30 Index declined 1,499.61 points to end at 63,394.82, while the KSE All Share Index dropped 418.85 points, closing at 28,574.84.
The overall market volumes declined from 371.72 million shares in the previous session to 348.58 million shares (-6pc). Average traded value also fell by 0.6pc, from $76 million to $75.6 million. Hascol Petroleum Ltd (HASCOL -7.50pc), K-Electric Ltd (KEL -2.65pc) and TRG Pakistan Ltd (TRG -6.90pc) led the volume chart, exchanging 52.66 million, 35.08 million and 24.66 million shares, respectively.
Sectors that painted the benchmark index red included oil & gas exploration (-134.92 points), oil & gas marketing (-77.51 points) and banking (-71.14 points). Among the companies, Pak Petroleum Ltd (PPL -50.82 points), Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (OGDC -44.84 points) and TRG Pakistan Ltd (-36.20 points) dented the index the most.
Shedding 4.64pc from its cumulative market capitalization, the technology and communication emerged as the session’s top loser, with Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd (PTC -4.62pc), TRG Pakistan Ltd (TRG -6.90pc) and Systems Ltd (SYS -2.61pc) posting significant losses.
In a notification to the exchange, Avanceon Limited (AVN 6.51pc) announced that it has signed an agreement with BMA Capital to hold initial public offering (IPO) of its wholly-owned subsidiary, Octopus Digital.
Meanwhile, Nishat (Chunian) Ltd (NCL 3.58pc) declared its financial performance for FY20. The company’s sales fell by 9.33pc YoY, along with an 88pc surge in admin cost and 22pc in finance cost, pulling earnings per share from Rs13.19 in FY19 to Rs1.11 in FY20.
