KARACHI: The equity market fell by 377 points on Thursday owing to rising concerns of investors over fast spread of coronavirus in the third wave.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 44,930 points as against previous day’s closing of 45,306 points, showing a decline of 377 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that concern over growing cases of Corona and incidence in major cities thereof kept the investors perturbed the second day as well, where despite healthy earnings posted by companies announced today, the index eventually went down by 424 points. At the close, the index registered a decline of 377 points.
E&P, Cement, Steel scrips contributed the most to the decline, whereas banking sector stocks saw pick up today. Notable scrips declaring results today includes ENGRO and UBL, which made the announcement at the beginning of the session that included dividend declaration, however, selling pressure brought the stock prices down by the end of session. Among scrips, GGL topped the volumes with 36.3 million shares, followed by TRG (30.2 million) and WTL (26.8 million).
Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P (-94 points), Cement (-79 points), Textile (-55 points), Technology (-45 points) and Autos (-34 points).
Volumes declined from 387.9 million shares to 328.9 million shares (-15 percent DoD). Average traded value also declined by 18 percent to reach US$ 103.5 million as against US$ 126.3 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include GGL, TRG, WTL, UNITY and TELE, which formed 38 percent of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively to the index include UBL (+56 points), HBL (+45 points), ENGRO (+27 points), BAFL (+11 points) and BAHL (+8 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include OGDC (-40 points), MCB (-29 points), PPL (-26 points), SYS (-25 points) and LUCK (-20 points).
