KARACHI: The stock market fell by 226 points on Monday owing to concerns of inflationary pressure and rise rupee/dollar parity.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 48,013 points as against last Friday’s closing of 48,239 points, showing a decline of 226 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market traded in a narrow range between +132 points and -275 points, closing the session -226 points.
Uncertainty prevailed during the session due to concerns over increase in oil prices giving rise to inflation as well as the increase in Rupee : Dollar parity which caused the investors to take a cautious approach.
Despite increase in cement price / bag in the outgoing week, Cement and Steel sector stocks were down. Though oil prices have maintained stable ground, E&P sector remained under selling pressure. Among scrips, SILK topped the volumes with 235.1 million shares, followed by HUMNL (60.3 million) and WTL (58.4 million).
Sectors contributing to the performance include Cement (-64 points), Banks (-3 points), Chemical (-25 points), Fertilizer -24 points), O&GMCs (-20 points).
Volumes increased from 750.5 million shares to 839.2 million shares (+12 percent DoD). Average traded value declined by 23 percent to reach US$ 100.8 million as against US$ 131.2 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include SILK, HUMNL, WTL, PIBTL and FFL, which formed 53 percent of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively to the index include SYS (+19 points), FCEPL (+12 points), MEBL (+6 points), SNGP (+6 points) and HUBC (+6 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include LUCK (-33 points), PSO (-22 points), MCB (-20 points), COLG (-15 points) and ENGRO (-14 points).
