KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange Thursday witnessed extraordinary selling pressure on the first day of its MSCI upgrade as the benchmark KSE-100 Index dropped more than 1,800 points at closing.
The PSX benchmark 100-index shed mammoth 1810.76 points to close at 48780.81 points level.
The day after the announcement of federal budget 2017-18, the market trend turned bearish as the investors are selling their shares owing to increase in tax on dividends from 12.5% to 15%. The shares that were bought on July 1, 2013 now have a tax of 15% on them. According to financial analyst Muzammil Aslam, the increase in taxes has a negative impact on the share market.
Earlier, trading had commenced on a negative note, as the benchmark shed more than 700 points within the first 30 minutes of trading. There were signs of a rebound around 11am, with index making a high at 34 points above the opening level. However, it failed to sustain this momentum. The benchmark index had slid 4 per cent by noon to the day’s low of 48,536, and within two hours, had lost more than 2,000 points.
The stocks recorded the highest trading level of 50645.33 points and lowest level of 48361.19 points, with the volume of about 404 million shares and value of Rs27.49 billion. As many as 388 companies were active; of which 38 advanced, 343 declined and 7 remained unchanged.
Volumes were led by K-Electric Ltd with 49,81m shares, down 5.19pc. The Bank of Punjab followed with 27,21m shares, down 15.44pc. Similarly Power Cement(R) had traded 23,71m shares, down 14.58pc.
The top three gainers were Shezan International with price per share of 440.06 (9.96), Wah-Noble with price per share of 306.20 (8.55) and Attock Cement share of 328 (6.94).
The top three losers were Rafhan Maize with price per share of 7191.67 (-108.33), Wyeth Pak Ltd with price per share of 2213.77 (-95.07) and Pak Tobacco share of 1503.60 (-79.13).
On Wednesday, bearish activity was also witnessed at PSX as the benchmark shares index lost 861 points (down 1.67pc) to close at 50,591.57 points.
Volumes improved to 411 million shares versus 235 million shares traded in the previous session, while traded value rose to Rs53 billion. Oil & Gas Dev emerged volume leader with 27 million traded shares, followed by Engro Corp with 23 million traded shares and K-Electric with 21 million traded shares stood second and third. Scrips of total 382 active companies traded in the session, of which 109 finished in green, 248 in red while 25 remained unchanged.
