Closing bell: Sailing through rough seas

April 23, 2019 (MLN): The domestic equity markets have witnessed a blood bath in the last two trading sessions as the benchmark index shed a net total 888 points on the whole, out of which 497 points were lost in today’s trade.  

Channeling negative sentiments rooting from reshuffling of the cabinet and uncertainty regarding IMF decision and FATF review, the market participants were seemingly crushed under the rising selling pressure today as the KSE – 100 index lost up to 765 points in intraday, but recovered enough points by day end to conclude the session at 36,404 points.

The index’s poor performance today was heavily subject to the hefty losses incurred by the Fertilizer sector, Commercial Banks, Cement sector and Oil & Gas Exploration Companies as they collectively took away 248 points from the index.

Particularly, points lost on the scrips of HBL (-1.71%) and DAWH (-3.84%) led the index in red.

Out of the 90 companies listed at KSE – 100 index, whose shares were traded today, 74 companies recorded a decline in their share prices.

On the whole, 95.4 million shares of these 90 companies were traded today, at PKR 4.6 billion.

Meanwhile, the broader KSE All Share index lost 334 points in today’s trade and closed the session at 26,632 points which is 1.24% lower than yesterday’s closing value at the index.

A total of 119.6 million shares were traded within this index at PKR 5 billion.

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