KARACHI: Bears took charge of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Monday, with the indices failing to sustain gains accumulated in early trade and closing in the red.
Global equity markets, on the other hand, displayed a positive trend, whereas crude oil prices slipped lower from the previous close; WTI oil price falling 1.21pc to $40.11 while Brent crude price declining 1.05pc to $42.40.
“The market braced the impact of the FATF’s Asia Pacific Group decision to maintain Pakistan’s position on ‘Enhanced Follow-up List’, which was primarily an evaluation based on Pakistan’s performance as of February 2020,” said a report issued by AHL Ltd. “The index, which started the day positively, all of a sudden felt quite heavy to retail investors, who considered it best to book profit and close positions.”
MARKET SUMMARY
The benchmark KSE-100 Index started the day on a positive note, recording its intraday high 41,047.46 after gaining 249.03 points. Failing to sustain the gains the index toppled to day’s low of 40,149.78 losing 648.65 pts. It finally settled lower by 588.61 points at 40,209.82.
Among other indices, the KMI-30 Index plunged 1,099.20 points to end at 64,171.45, while the KSE All Share Index lost 362.66 points to close at 28,511.39.
The overall market volumes were recorded at 376.40 million shares (+5pc). Average traded value also increased by 8pc, from $72.8 million to $79 million. Power Cement Ltd (POWER -5.25pc), Hascol Petroleum Ltd (HASCOL -6.35pc) and TRG Pakistan Ltd (TRG -6.88pc) led the volume chart, exchanging 50.58 million, 41.84 million and 23.44 million shares, respectively.
Sectors that pulled the benchmark index lower included oil & gas exploration (-98.30 points), cement (-84.89 points) and banking (-72.15 pts). Among the companies, Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (OGDC -44.96 points), Habib Bank Ltd (HBL -38.17 points) and Hub Power Company Ltd (HUBC -37.86 points) dented the index the most.
Shedding 5.20pc from its cumulative market capitalization, the refinery sector ended as the session’s top loser, with Byco Petroleum Pakistan Ltd (BYCO -4.42pc), National Refinery Ltd (NRL -6.22pc), Attock Refinery Ltd (ATRL -6.30pc) and Pakistan Refinery Ltd (PRL -6.14pc) posting significant losses.
