KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) remained bearish on Monday mainly due to political uncertainty ahead of Senate elections scheduled for March 3.
The performance of global equity markets remained mixed, whereas crude oil prices moved up from the previous close; WTI crude oil price appreciating 1.28pc to $62.30 while Brent crude oil price was rising 1.24pc to $65.22 (as at 3:44pm PST).
“The market opened on a positive note, but across the board selling pressure brought the index down over 750 points intraday. TRG announced financial results today, which resulted in profit booking, bringing the stock below LDCP. The last half hour saw brisk buying with the index recovering some lost territory,” a report issued by Arif Habib Ltd read.
MARKET SUMMARY
The benchmark KSE-100 Index endured a volatile session on Monday, registering its intraday high at 46,009.38 (+144.36 points) and low at 45,092.80 (-772.22 points). It settled lower by 271.59 points at 45,593.43.
Among other indices, the KMI030 Index dropped 275.78 points to end at 76,002.59, while the KSE All Share Index lost 166.90 points, closing at 31,269.25.
The overall market volumes contracted from 479.97 million shares on Friday to 368.21 million shares (-23pc). Average traded value also declined by 29pc, from $162.8 million to $116.4 million. Azgard Nine Ltd (ANL +2.28pc), TRG Pakistan Ltd (TRG -0.40pc) and Unity Foods Ltd (UNITY -5.35pc) led the volume chart, exchnaging 31.73 million, 24.61 million and 21.19 million shares, respectively.
Sectors that drove the benchmark index north included banking (-104.78 points), textile composite (-27.05 points) and pharmaceutical (-25.61 points). Among the companies, banking players United Bank Ltd (UBL -38.64 points), Habib Bank ltd (HBL -32.51 points) and Bank Al Habib Ltd (BAHL -18.44 points) dented the index the most.
Shedding 1.61pc from its cumulative market capitalization, the refinery sector ended as the session’s top performer, with Byco Petroleum Pakistan Ltd and Pakistan Refinery Ltd ending in the negative.
