KARACHI: In line with the downtrend witnessed in global stock markets, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) remained in the negative territory throughout the session on Thursday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index shedding over 350 points intraday.
“Exploration & production, oil & gas marketing and refinery sectors sustained price losses owing to the decline in international crude prices, which fell by $3 per barrel overnight. On the other hand, cement stocks showed better performance on the back of an anticipated increase in cement dispatches in the ongoing month,” said a report issued by Arif Habib Ltd. “Overall, selling activity was observed across the board.”
According to the report, SBP’s announcement of another 100bps rate cut after the session justified the more than usual negativity in the banking scrips. “As has been the practice during the past few sessions, institutional investors seemed more interested in the closure to FY20 and therefore executed trades of marked-to-market nature than even driven trades.”
The KSE-100 Index remained in the red zone throughout the day, registering its intraday low at 33,657.78 after dropping 376.87 points. It closed lower by 325.02 points at 33,709.63.
Among other indices, the KMI-30 Index plunged 534.65 points to close at 54,064.47, while the KSE All Share Index lost 218.08 points, settling at 24,173.16. Of the total traded shares, 89 advanced and 207 declined.
The overall market volumes fell from 195.64 million shares in the last session to 168.42 million shares. Average traded value also declined by 9pc, from $34.5 million to $31.5 million. Worldcall Telecom (WTL +8.75pc), Hum Network Limited (HUMNL +7.35pc) and TRG Pakistan Limited (TRG +0.25pc) led the volume chart, exchanging 19.55 million, 13.41 million and 12.54 million shares, respectively.
Sectors which painted the benchmark index red included oil & gas exploration (-85.67 points), banking (-55.20 points) and power generation (-39.43 points). Among the companies, Hub Power Company Ltd (HUBC -37.05 points), Nestle Pakistan Ltd (NESTLE -35.35 points) and Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (OGDC -34.34 points) dented the index the most.
Shedding 2pc of its cumulative market capitalization, the oil and gas exploration sector turned out to be the biggest loser the day, with Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC -2.12pc), Mari Petroleum (MARI -2.37pc), Pakistan Oilfields (POL -0.61pc) and Pak Petroleum (PPL -2.08pc) closing in the red.
