KARACHI: Shortly after the commencement of the session on Thursday, the worst fears of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) investors became a reality when the KSE-100 Index broke the 30,000 psychological mark. The index had not seen this level during the last four years.
At one point during the trading session, there was not even one script trading positively in the benchmark index. The only takeaway from the day remained the overall volumes, which crossed the 100 million mark for the first time since July 18th.
Mutual Funds continued with the selling spree again on Wednesday. The institutions were net sellers of $3.87 million. In the last 10 days, cumulative net selling from funds has touched $17.20 million.
As political noise increased, the KSE-100 Index dropped 877.17 points to reach an intraday low of 29,400.28, a level last seen in 2014. The index tried to stage a comeback but the bears retrained it from doing so. It finally settled lower by 539.47 points at 29,737.98.
The commercial bank sector (-222.77 points) and the oil & gas exploration sector (-149.92 points) collectively pulled the index down by 372.69 points.
Among the companies, Habib Bank Limited (HBL -67.92 points), MCB Bank Limited (MCB -54.68 points) and United Bank Limited (UBL -44.56 points) caused the most harm to the index.
All other indices also ended in the red zone; KSE All Share Index was down 302.81 points, KMI-30 Index lost 897.28 points while the KSE-30 Index dropped 285.20 points.
On the financial side, Engro Fertilizer Limited (EFERT +3.03pc) defied the market sentiments and managed to put up a decent show on Thursday after declaring its financials for the second quarter of the FY2019.
The company reported sales of Rs17.70 billion with a profit of Rs4.69 million. Earnings per share clocked in at Rs3.51, up 66.35pc compared to the same period last year. The management also approved a cash dividend of Rs5.00 per share.
