Closing Bell: Back to square one?

May 28, 2019 (MLN): After a consistent recovery of 2,500 points in a span of 5 days, the benchmark KSE – 100 index observed another crash of nearly 750 points at the trading floors today, which dragged it below the 35,000 points mark yet again.

The index ended the trade with a 748 point or 2.10 percent decline to close at 34,949.

Today’s losses are attributed to MSCI’s semi-annual review which took place earlier this month, and in which three companies namely; Fauji Cement (FCCL), Fauji Bin Qasim (FFBL) and International Industries (ISL) were removed from the small-cap index.

Although this rebalancing was announced a fortnight ago, it comes into effect from today, thereby resulting in a steep crash at the trading floors.

Moreover, since the equity market recovered remarkably by 7% in 5 days, profit-taking seems to be another cause for the index's downfall today.

The Index traded within a range of 804 points, showing an intraday high of 35,703 and a low of 34,898.

Of the 89 traded companies in the KSE - 100 Index, 12 companies closed up, 74 companies closed down, while 3 remained unchanged in terms of their shares prices. Total volume traded for the index was 122million shares.

Sector wise, the index was let down by Oil & Gas Exploration Companies with 170 points, Fertilizer with 163 points, Commercial Banks with 159 points, Oil & Gas Marketing Companies with 74 points and Cement with 58 points.

The most points taken off the index was by OGDC which stripped the index of 66 points followed by FFC with 62 points, HBL with 58 points, POL with 52 points and PPL with 37 points.

On the other hand, the KSE All Share Volume increased by 27 Million to 152 Million Shares while the Market Cap decreased by Rs.98.22 Billion.

Total companies traded within the broader KSE index were 327 compared to 341 from the previous session. Of the scrips traded, 70 closed up, 238 closed down while 19 remained unchanged.

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