Closing Bell: The plight of KSE-100 continues

May 17, 2019 (MLN): The KSE-100 index ended the week on a distasteful note, as it lost 804 points and closed at 33,166 points. At one point, the index was at the verge of falling below the 33,000 point mark. Within a course of one week, the index has lost around 1550 points, whereas the month-to-date losses amount to 3,860 points.

As mentioned earlier, the trading floors became a prey to acute selling pressure, distressed economic environment and adverse movement in exchange rate. Furthermore, expectations hovering around Monetary Policy Statement regarding an imminent rate hike also fed off the sentiments of investors.

A number of sectors suffered from the wrath of adverse economic conditions, amongst which the most prominent ones are E&P companies (-160), Fertilizer (-158), and Commercial banks (-86). Moreover, the scrips that emerged as the key performance drivers included FFC (-4.73%), PPL (-2.84%), ENGRO (-2.95%), OGDC (-2.25%), POL (-3.25%) and PSO (-5.00%).

The benchmark index oscillated between an intraday high of 33,971 points and an intraday low of 33,005 points. Moreover, the share prices of 7 companies reported an increase, 84 companies reported a decrease whereas 4 companies reported no change.

The broader KSE All Share index ended the session on a corresponding note, as it lost around 494 points and closed at 24,582 points. It traded nearly 90 million shares, having a value of Rs. 3 billion.

Market Cap decreased by another USD 1.338 Billion due to the continued fall and devaluation of the Rupee with the weekly decline in market cap amounting to USD 4.340 Billion or 8.61 percent.

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