KARACHI: The equity market ended down by 282 points on Thursday owing to selling pressure seen during the day.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 34,119 points as against 34,401 points showing a decline of 282 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market saw selling pressure today whereby E&P and Banking sectors contributed towards the decline besides other sectors, which were already adjusting downwards for the past couple of sessions, namely Cement, Fertilizer, OMCs and Pharmaceuticals.
Overall, the Index slid by 311 points during the session after posting a small gain of 9 points early on, closing the Index -282 points.
Yields of T-bill and 10y PIB increased significantly which diminishes the prospect of further rate cut.
At the same time, lackluster participation from Mutual Funds, Banks and Insurance (and mostly on the sell side) has made current Index levels a hurdle, despite pre-budget timeframe.
International crude prices were also under pressure, which brought E&P stocks down as well. Technology sector topped the index with 18.1 million shares, followed by Power (15.8 million) and O&GMCs (13.6 million).
Among scrips, TRG led the volumes with 11.3 million shares, followed by UNITY (11.3 million) and HASCOL (8.1 million).
Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (-85 points), E&P (-79 points), Power (-34 points), Cement (-28 points) and Food (-24 points).
Volumes increased from 129.9 million shares to 143.6 million shares (+10 percent DoD). Average traded value, on the contrary declined by 19 percent to reach US$ 33.9 million as against US$ 41.5 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include TRG, UNITY, HASCOL, KAPCO and PAEL, which formed 30 percent of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively to the index include SNGP (+9 points), ANL (+8 points), ABOT (+7 points), PMPK (+7 points) and FFC (+5 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include OGDC (-34 points), HUBC (-31 points), PPL (-28 points), MCB (-27 points), and UBL (-24 points).
