KARACHI: The share market sharply fell by 653 points or 1.9 percent on Monday owing to heavy selling during the day.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 34,472 points as against 35,125 points showing a decrease of 653 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market opened on a positive note with +24 points, but hit a ceiling of +69 points followed by heavy selling throughout the session.
Cement sector caused the concern among investors due to requirement introduced in the budget for presenting CNIC to buy cement as well as the protest from cement dealers highlighting the risks of low sales by cement manufacturers.
Non-activation of State Enterprise Fund, also added to the misery of investors. Across the board selling was observed and positive news flow on Qatar’s potential investment in Pakistan to the tune of US$ 3 billion also failed to stem the flow of selling.
Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P (-127 points), Cement (-106 points), Fertilizer (-102 points), Banks (-91 points), OGMCs (-56 points).
Volumes declined from 129.3 million shares to 78.7 million shares (-39 percent DoD). Average traded value also declined by 31 percent DoD to reach US$ 18.4 million as against US$ 26.9 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include KEL, TRG, FCCL, MLCF and UNITY, which formed 29 percent of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed negatively include LUCK (-56 points), PPL (-40 points), POL (-34 points), OGDC (-34 points) and ENGRO (-33 points). Stocks that contributed positively include PMPK (+11 points), BAHL (+7 points), NESTLE (+7 points), PKGS (+3 points) and NATF (+3 points).
