KARACHI: The stock market fell by 309 points on Thursday due to political uncertainty and imposition of smart lockdown in various parts of the country.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 33,539 points as against 33,848 points showing a decline of 309 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market shed 377 points again during the session and closed -309 points. Political uncertainty amid emergency lockdown in different parts of the country caused investors to rethink decisions.
In addition, rupee parity also dropped to 166.35 that showed US$ as a preferred store of value for investors as against equities.
Vanaspati sector continued leading the volumes on the bourse, which is primarily driven by UNITY. A total of 23.9 million shares of UNITY traded today.
Technology sector followed Vanaspati in terms of traded volumes with 22.9 million shares, trailed by Banks (22.2 million). Among scrips, MDTL and BOP followed UNITY with 9.9 million and 8.3 million shares respectively.
Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (-86 points), Fertilizer (-59 points), Power (-49 points), E&P (-36 points) and OMC’s (-24 points).
Volumes dropped from 340.8 million shares to 216.2 million shares (-37 percent DoD). Average traded value also declined by 36 percent to reach US$ 38.9 million as against US$ 61 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include UNITY, MDTL, BOP, JSCL and HASCOL, which formed 26 percent of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively to the index include DAWH (+18 points), HBL (+14 points), AGP (+6 points), GLAXO (+5 points) and FML (+3 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include BAHL (-45 points), HUBC (-44 points), FFC (-21 points), UBL (-18 points), and PPL (-16 points).
