KARACHI: The stock market made significant comeback after intraday crash on Monday and trimmed the decline 1161 points to close the market.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) ended 37,059 points from last Friday’s closing of 38,220 points showing decline of 1161 points or 3.3 percent.
The market witnessed decline of 2300 points in intraday trading.
Analysts at Topline Securities said that KSE 100 index declined by 3.13 percent to close at 37,059 level, taking cue from international markets, where bears dominated following the deepest oil price cut by Saudi Arabia (sharpest decline since 1991) as OPEC failed to strike a deal with its allies regarding production cuts.
Market witnessed its first ever halt as KSE 30 index made an intraday decline of 1200 (down by -7.4 percent), where rule states that if KSE-30 Index continues to trade 4 percent above or below its opening index value for consecutive 5 minutes, trading in all securities shall be halted for 45 minutes.
E&P sector which declined by 7 percent in light of decline in oil prices was largely responsible for market halt, as the sector has a significant weight of 19 percent in KSE 30 index.
Secondly, the expectation of a rate cut gained further momentum consigning banks to the depths with several index heavy banks (HBL,UBL, BAHL, BAFL, MEBL) hitting lower locks.
As a result the 100 index was down 2,302 points at its lowest ebb.
Some recovery was witnessed in the market on the back of cyclicals, as investor’s started cherry picking especially in the cement sector given the high leverage status.
Trading volume and value for the day stood at 308mn shares and Rs.11.4 billion respectively. FCCL was today`s volume leader with 30.7 million shares.
