KARACHI: The equity market has not responded to historic accords signed between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and ended down on Monday.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 40,219 points as against 40,487 points showing a decline of 267 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that market took negative stance despite historical accords signed between Pakistan and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Market opened on a positive note and increased by 168 points, however, selling pressure ensued that plunged the market by 3:00 PM to 40,000 (a drop of 487 points). Last half hour saw recovery of 230 points that brought the total loss towards 255 points. Volumes were led by Cement Sector (that saw FCCL, DGKC and MLCF trading in red).
Banking sector also saw selling pressure that brought HBL and UBL trading below yesterday’s close. Although KEL topped the volumes chart, the total volume traded was anemically low of 6.3 million shares.
Sectors contributing to the performance include Cement (-65 points), banks (-58 points), Fertilizer (-38 points), Power (-16 points) and Pharma (-15 points).
Volumes increased slightly from 93 million shares to 99 million shares (+6 percent DoD). Average traded value also increased an inch towards US$ 34 million as against US$ 33.8 million the other day (+1 percent DOD).
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include KEL, PAEL, FFL, LOTCHEM and STPL, which formed 27 percent of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively include PSO (+16 points), OGDC (+7 points), NESTLE (+5 points), POL (+4 points), and KTML (+3 points).
Stocks that contributed negatively include LUCK (-23 points), DGKC (-20 points), DAWH (-18 points), UBL (-18 points) and MARI (-18 points).
