KARACHI: The stock market posted a decline of 392 points on Tuesday owing to year-end profit booking and new strain of coronavirus.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 43,282 points as against previous day’s close of 43,674 points showing a decline of 392 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market was dominated by mark to market activity by institutions (as today’s settlement falls on December 31st) as well as partly due to profit booking.
Stocks having high weightage on Index (OGDC, PPL, HBL, UBL, MCB) traded at and near similar rates as they were on September 2020 end.
Positive news abound, Investors resorted to profit booking today which was evident in E&P, Banks, Cement, Power and Fertilizer sectors with the view that they will be able to buy back at lower rates.
Incidence of new strain of corona cases also caused concern among Investors. Among scrips, UNITY topped the volumes with 41.3 million shares, followed by KEL (38.1 million) and PRL (32 million).
Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (-136 points), E&P (-78 points), Cement (-71 points), Fertilizer (-60 points) and Power (-46 points).
Volumes increased from 463.4 million shares to 501.3 million shares (+8 percent DOD). Average traded value also increased by 11 percent to reach US$ 130.7 million as against US$ 117.8 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include UNITY, KEL, PRL, TRG and PAEL, which formed 33 percent of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively to the index include SEARL (+14 points), TRG (+13 points), MEBL (+11 points), UNITY (+9 points) and AKBL (+8 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include HBL (-63 points), MCB (-42 points), HUBC (-42 points), UBL (-38 points) and ENGRO (-35 points).
