KARACHI: The equity market plunged by 209 points on Thursday over financial results declared by banking sector, analysts said.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 40,070 points as against 40,279 points showing a decline of 209 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market plunged after an initial up-tick of 137 points, after which the index dropped by around 400 points.
Reason for decline was mainly the release of financial reports of HBL and UBL and the concern over provisions caused investors to sell both scrips.
Resultantly, UBL ranked third on volumes chart with 5 million shares and as against yesterday’s upper circuit, UBL hit lower circuit today. HBL also faced similar pressures and realized volume of 2.5 million.
HBL’s price did pick up after a drop towards lower circuit and closed near 135. Sectors contributing to the performance include Power (-104 points), Banks (-70 points), Fertilizer (-21 points), Cement (+19 points) and Autos (+14 points).
Volumes declined from 132 million shares to 103 million shares (-22 percent DoD). Average traded value also declined by 9 percent to reach US$ 43.5 million as against US$ 47.9 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include UNITY, KEL, UBL, LOTCHEM and MEBL, which formed 30 percent of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively include BAHL (+45 points), MCB (+36 points), LUCK (+15 points), THALL (+14 points), and BAFL (+8 points).
Stocks that contributed negatively include UBL (-81 points), HUBC (-73 points), HBL (-67 points), KAPCO (-24 points) and FABL (-11 points).
