Equity market falls by 825 points on profit taking

Equity market falls by 825 points on profit taking

KARACHI: The equity market fell by 825 points on Monday owing to profit taking in the last days of present year.

The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 40,008 points as against 40,833 points showing a decline of 825 points.

Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market took a significant toll from the internal and external headwinds faced these days.

During MoC, index decline crossed -900 points, which built up throughout the day.

Market closed -825 points and closed the session with 274 stocks in decline. Selling was observed across the board, but was particularly seen in oil & gas chain.

PPL’s most anticipated discovery proved to be a miniscule one that dampened the investor sentiment.

Resultantly, PPL traded near lower circuits by the end of session. Cement sector led the volumes with 26.6 million shares, followed by Technology (23.1 million) and O&GMCs (22.7 million). Among scrips, WTL traded the most with 13.6 million shares, followed by HASCOLR (12.7 million) and UNITY (11.9 million).

Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (-225 points), E&P (-174 points), Power (-71 points), Fertilizer (-66 points) and Inv Banks (-56 points).

Volumes declined from 180.7 million shares to 179.1 million shares (-1 percent DoD). Average traded value however, declined by 19 percent to reach US$ 44.9 million as against US$ 55.1 million.

Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include WTL, HASCOLR1, UNITY, FFL and FCCL, which formed 31 percent of total volumes.

Stocks that contributed positively include NESTLE (+9 points), INDU (+5 points), DGKC (+3 points), GHGL (+1 points) and INIL (+0 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include HBL (-93 points), PPL (-91 points), HUBC (-54 points), DAWH (-51 points), and OGDC (-49 points).