KARACHI: Pakistan equities slumped by 423 points on Friday due to uncertainty over talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) ended at 38,408 points from previous day’s closing of 38,831 points, showing a decline of 423 points.
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Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the negative session was recorded at the PSX during the day.
The market opened in the green but bears rapidly took control, driving the index into the red throughout the first session as investor participation was low due to the uncertainty surrounding the talks to revive the IMF program.
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The second session began with the same negative sentiments, but due to the weekend investor-booked profit that led the market to make an intraday low of 539.88 points.
Volumes on the mainboard remained reasonable, with third-tier companies dominating the volume board.
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Sectors contributing to the performance include Commercial Banks (-82.1 points), Technology & Communication (-60.8 points), Cement (-58.8 points), E&P’s (-53.4 points), and OMCs (-41.0 points).
Volumes decreased from 157.8 million shares to 93.5 million shares (-40.8 per cent DoD). The average traded value also decreased by 45.4 per cent to USD 15.3 million as against USD 28.0 million.
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Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes are PPL, WTL, GCIBL, CNERGY and TRG.
