Stock market plunges by 400 points as policy rate disappoints investors

Stock market plunges by 400 points as policy rate disappoints investors

KARACHI: The stock market plunged by 400 points on Wednesday as no reduction in policy rate by the central bank disappointed investors.

The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 41,899 points as against 42,299 points showing a decline of 400 points.

Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that following yesterday’s slide, the market went down by another 400 points.

The decision of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) of not cutting the rates at this stage caused concern amongst investors and resulted in booking profits in Cement, Steel sectors.

On the contrary, E&P and OMCs performed better in relative terms on the back of slight improvement in international crude oil prices.

Start of market saw FFBL announcing financial results which were poorer than anticipation and caused the share price declining to lower circuit.

Technology sector topped the volumes with 34.3 million shares, followed by Cement (26.1 million) and Banks (23.9 million). WTL realized trading volume of 22.7 million shares, whereas HASCOL realized (17.9 million) and MLCF (10.8 million).

Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (-148 points), Cement (-69 points), Fertilizer (-53 points), Power (-31 points), and Inv Banks (-21 points).

Volumes increased by 4 percent to reach 197.1 million shares as against 189 million. Average traded value increased by 10 percent to reach US$ 47.9 million as against US$ 43.4 million.

Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include WTL, HASCOL, MLCF, KEL and FFBL, which formed 35 percent of total volumes.

Stocks that contributed positively include OGDC (+12 points), BAHL (+9 points), ISL (+5 points), SRVI (+3 points) and GLAXO (+3 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include HBL (-62 points), MCB (-44 points), LUCK (-38 points), UBL (-30 points), and ENGRO (-25 points).