KARACHI: The stock market plunged by 936 points on Thursday as selling pressure continued in the market.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 37,101 points as against 38,038 points showing a decline of 936 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the reports of implementation of Axle Load policy as directed by Islamabad High Court broke the day, post market opening, which had a knee jerk reaction on Cement and Steel stocks.
Selling pressure kept building up with investors concerned about growing political wrangling.
Index heavy weights took the toll, causing index to plunge by more than 1000 points, which caused panic among investors especially after sustaining a blow of 527 points yesterday.
Cement sector led the volumes table with 42.7 million shares, followed by Technology (22.6 million) and Engineering (22 million).
Scrip wise activity showed KEL scoring 12.1 million shares, followed by PAEL (10.3 million) and TRG (9.5 million).
Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (-208 points), Fertilizer (-114 points), E&P (-100 points), Power (-96 points) and Cement (-95 points).
Volumes declined from 327.7 million shares to 232.4 million shares (-29 percent DoD).
Average traded value also declined by 29 percent DoD to reach US$ 52.1 million as against US$ 73.5 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include KEL, PAEL, TRG, UNITY and BOP, which formed 21 percent of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively include NESTLE (+5 points), AICL (+3 points), HASCOL (+2 points), GATM (+1 points) and STJT (+0 points).
Stocks that contributed negatively include HUBC (-69 points), ENGRO (-59 points), LUCK (-53 points), PSO (-44 points), and PPL (-43 points).
