KARACHI: The stock market ran into bear market on Monday after slipping another 2,376 points and witnessed forth lower lock since last week.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 33,685 points as against 36,061 points showing a decline of 2,376 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the index marked the 4th halt since last week and since the circuit breakers moved up, the downside came with KSE-30 dropping 5 percent.
The 100-index sustained a loss of 1651 points at the time of halt, but continued the downtrend ultimately posting a total loss of 2442 points during the session and registering a small recovery by end of session showing a loss of 2376 points.
Market did not take any positive cue from the upcoming monetary policy, to be announced tomorrow, whereby street anticipates a cut of 50-100bps.
Fears of coronavirus spread have also caused significant damage to investor sentiment and generally investors were seen sidelined. Index heavy weights in Banking, Cement, Fertilizer, E&P sectors were observed at or near lower circuits.
Banking sector realized trading volumes of 56.4 million shares, followed by Cement (37.6 million) and Technology (14 million). Among scrips, BOP topped the volumes with 31.1 million shares, followed by MLCF (25.7 million) and FCCL (20.9 million).
Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (-689 points), E&P (-326 points), Fertilizer (-281 points), Cement (-220 points), Power (-155 points).
Volumes declined from 290.5 million shares to 215.4 million shares (-26 percent DoD). Average traded value also declined by 42 percent to reach US$50.9 million to US$ 88.2 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include BOP, MLCF, UNITY, PPL and TRG, which formed 38 percent of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed negatively include HBL (-169 points), ENGRO (-140 points), HUBC (-126 points), MCB (-124 points), and UBL (-115 points).