KARACHI: The stock market fell by 787 points on Monday as budget disappointed investors regarding tax incentives.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 33,824 points as against 34,612 points showing a decline of 787 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market did not respond well to the government’s budget announcement.
The benchmark index lost a total of 796 points during the session and closed -787 points.
The budget largely disappointed investors who expected major tax cuts and incentives from the budget which the government itself termed as Corona budget.
Selling pressure was observed across the board from banks to oil and cements, without paying heed to reduction of duties that the government announced for various sectors on import of raw material.
Highest trading volume was observed in vanaspati sector with 45.3 million shares, followed by Cement (38.7 million) and Chemical (23.9 million). Among scrips, UNITY topped the index with 45.3 million shares, followed by POWER (10.9 million) and ANL (10.3 million).
Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (-178 points), E&P (-115 points), Cement (-99 points), Fertilizer (-89 points), Power (-58 points).
Volumes increased from 177.9 million shares to 262.8 million shares (+48 percent DoD). Average traded value also increased by 31 percent to reach US$ 50.2 million as against US$ 38.3 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include UNITY, POWER, ANL, MLCF and LOTCHEM, which formed 33 percent of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively to the index include ANL (+8 points), SEARL (+6 points), JLICL (+5 points), LOTCHEM (+4 points) and SYS (+3 points).
Stocks that contributed negatively include MCB (-51 points), OGDC (-50 points), UBL (-45 points), LUCK (-45 points), and HUBC (-43 points).
