Equities plunge 603 points amid lackluster investors’ participation

KARACHI: Pakistan equities plunged by 603 points on Monday due to lackluster participation of investors.

The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) fell to 39,720 points from last Friday’s closing of 40,323 points, showing a decline of 603 points.

Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the business week started off with negative sentiments across the board resulting the index to trade in the red territory throughout the trading session due to the prevailing political uproar.

Investors participation remained sluggish across the board as the index made an intraday low of 662.70 points and closed negative at the end of the trading day. Volumes remained dry across the board.

Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P’s (-132.1 points), Technology & Communication (-97.1 points), Cement (-63.2 points), Fertilizer (-57.1 points), and Commercial Banks (-56.0 points).

Volumes decreased from 173.3 million shares to 105.5 million shares (-39.1 per cent DoD). The average traded value also decreased by 30.8 per cent to USD 14.0 million as against USD 20.3 million.

Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes are WTL, HASCOL, LOTCHEM, PPL and OGDC.