KARACHI: The stock market plunged by 1222 points or three percent on Monday owing to higher than expected inflation numbers.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 40,409 points as against 41,631 points showing a decline of 1222 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market saw a significant drawdown of around 1400 points during the session and closed negative 1222 points.
Over the weekend, worse than anticipated Inflation caused concern amongst investors, which were otherwise anticipating a rate cut just last week, before the announcement of monetary policy.
However, the prospects of a rate cut got dampened by the latest release of inflation statistics.
Declining international crude prices added to the woes of investors and significant dip in oil stocks was also observed. Banking sector stocks realized trading volumes of 40.7 million shares, followed by Cement (27.4 million) and Technology (26.4 million).
Among scrips, BOP led the trading volumes with 23.5 million shares followed by HASCOL (12.7 million) and MLCF (11.9 million).
Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (-320 points), E&P (-271 points), Fertilizer (-137 points), Cement (-98 points) and O&GMCs (-71 points).
Volumes increased from 193.9 million shares to 203.1 million shares (+5 percent DoD). Average traded value also increased by 15 percent to reach US$ 59.1 million as against US$ 51.2 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include BOP, HASCOL, MLCF, UNITY and WTL, which formed 31 percent of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively include SYS (+12 points), DCR (+1 points), and ATLH (+0 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include PPL (-111 points), HBL (-97 points), ENGRO (-91 points), OGDC (-82 points), and MCB (-74 points).
