KARACHI: The stock market ended down by 487 points on Tuesday owing to delay concerns over activation of state enterprise and market opportunity fund.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 34,682 points as against 35,169 points showing a decline of 487 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market repeated yesterday’s episode of decline in index, which was primarily caused by concerns over delay in activation of State Enterprise & Market Opportunity Funds, MSCI and FTSE Reviews.
Activity was slow and investors maintained cautious stance.
Selling pressure was mainly observed in Banks and E&P Sector, which spread to Cement sector by the end of session.
Cement sector saw price gains on the back of another increase of Rs15-20 in price / bag, which couldn’t sustain selling pressure. MLCF, which topped the volumes chart, ended 5 percent down.
Overall, Cement sector led the volumes with 28M shares, followed by Technology stocks (mainly TRG).
Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (-79 points), Fertilizer (-76 points), E&P (-65 points), Cement (-59 points), O&GMCs (-55 points).
Volumes declined further from 128mn shares to 104mn shares (-19 percent DoD). Average traded value also declined by 19 percent to reach US$ 257mn as against US$ 31.6mn.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include MLCF, TRG, PIBTL, KEL and EPCL, which formed 35 percent of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively include PAKT (+6 points), OGDC (+5 points), GATM (+3 points), AICL (+2 points) and AGP (+2 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include MCB (-31 points), PPL (-28 points), MARI (-26 points), NESTLE (-23 points) and FFC (-23 points).
