Closing Bell: Bears in charge of the reigns again

April 8, 2020 (MLN): Pakistan’s stock market plummeted on Wednesday as the concerns regarding the spread of COVID-19 and a consequent economic slowdown in the country continues to grow.

Moreover, the negative international markets and pressure on international crude prices further disrupted investors’ sentiments to the extent that decline in the yields of 3 to 12 months T-bills by 4 to 23 bps in today’s secondary market and leeway of 5 additional months by FATF failed to excite investors.

Accordingly, the benchmark KSE-100 index lost some of the yesterday’s gains today after shedding 260 points and settled at 30,971 points level.

The Index traded in a range of 463.67 points or 1.48 percent of previous close, showing an intraday high of 31,239.72 and a low of 30,776.05.

Of the 97 traded companies in the KSE100 Index 37 closed up 54 closed down, while 6 remained unchanged. Total volume traded for the index was 153.09 million shares.

Sector wise, the index was let down by Commercial Banks with 115 points, Oil & Gas Exploration Companies with 45 points, Cement with 37 points, Tobacco with 36 points and Fertilizer with 21 points.

The most points taken off the index was by PAKT which stripped the index of 36 points followed by LUCK with 32 points, BAFL with 29 points, BAHL with 28 points and POL with 23 points.

Sectors propping up the index were Insurance with 23 points, Power Generation & Distribution with 10 points, Automobile Parts & Accessories with 3 points, Vanaspati & Allied Industries with 3 points and Paper & Board with 3 points.

The most points added to the index was by MCB which contributed 18 points followed by IGIHL with 9 points, KOHC with 9 points, KAPCO with 8 points and OGDC with 7 points.

All Share Volume increased by 8.23 Million to 181.00 Million Shares. Market Cap decreased by Rs.67.99 Billion.

Total companies traded were 333 compared to 335 from the previous session. Of the scrips traded 115 closed up, 193 closed down while 25 remained unchanged.

Total trades decreased by 1,754 to 77,224.

Value Traded decreased by 0.86 Billion to Rs.5.89 Billion

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