Equity market ends down by 104 points on panic selling

Equity market ends down by 104 points on panic selling

KARACHI: The equity market ended down by 104 points on Monday owing to panic selling.

The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 37,026 points as against 37,130 points showing a decline of 104 points.

Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market commenced on a positive note today and continued the rally that took place last week.

During the session, the index increased by 307 points that was caused by Cement sector stocks hitting upper circuit.

However, rumor regarding failure of negotiation amongst Cement manufacturers caused panic selling by investors, which resulted in index sliding in negative territory and erosion of price gains made earlier.

Cement Sector topped the volumes with 34 million shares, followed by Banks (24 million).

Among scrips, PIBTL led the volumes with 14 million shares followed by PAEL (11 million).

Major sentiment dampener turned out to be E&P sector that saw heavy selling in all the E&P scrips on the back of falling international oil prices.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Transport (+20 points), Tobacco (+19 points), E&P (-100 points), Fertilizer (-43 points), Power (-9 points), Textile (-8 points) and Cement (-7 points).

Volumes increased from 144 million shares to 177 million shares (+23 percent DoD).

Average traded value also increased by 22 percent to reach US$ 44.8 million as against US$ 36.7 million.

Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include PIBTL, PAEL, BOP, FCCL and KEL, which formed 32 percent of total volumes.

Stocks that contributed positively include PIBTL (+20 points), HBL (+16 points), HMB (+10 points), PMPK (+10 points), and PAKT (+9 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include PPL (-46 points), OGDC (-34 points), POL (-23 points), ENGRO (-19 points) and LUCK (-13 points).