Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed a bloodbath on Thursday, losing over 900 points intraday amid persistent selling pressure.
The market saw another thrashing of 1003 points after posting an increase of 199 points during the session. At the end of the day, KSE-100 closed at 42,779 points, down by -911 or 2.09 percent, the last level seen on December 20, 2020. According to Topline Securities, the index has touched a low of 63 sessions today.
Overall, the Pakistan market has lost 3,058 points (or 6.7 percent) in the last four trading sessions. This is the highest 4-day losing streak after March 18, 2020, when the market fell sharply in fear of the COVID outbreak.
During the session, several stocks hit the lower circuits.
A.A.H Soomro, Managing Director at Khadim Ali Shah Bukhari Securities, stated multiple reasons for the decline in the market.
He said, “Political uncertainty, rising taxation for IMF’s conditions, market leverage and mutual funds selling were the main reasons for the selling pressure today.”
He added that it would be outweighed eventually by stronger currency, corporate profitability, strong valuations, rising economic growth, and low-interest rates.
According to Topline Securities, a hike in cut-off yields by 25-34bps in the T-Bill Auction held yesterday, margin calls, rising COVID-19 cases, and political uncertainty all aggravated the selling pressure.
Major negative contributions today came from TRG, OGDC, LUCK, HBL, and ENGRO, who cumulatively dragged the index lower by 287 points.
In the All shares index, 406 million shares were traded today, while 196.92 million shares were traded in KSE-100. Shares of 357 companies were traded overall. At the end of the day, 47 stocks closed higher, 357 declined, and 11 remained unchanged.
Top Volumes
| SCRIP | PRICE | HIGH | LOW | CHANGE | VOLUME |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UNITY | 25.29 | 28.49 | 25.29 | -2.04 | 34,888,523 |
| TRG | 120.33 | 130 | 120.33 | -9.75 | 27,086,670 |
| HUMNL | 5.76 | 6.35 | 5.65 | -.39 | 21,531,000 |
| WTL | 1.17 | 1.28 | 1.13 | -.1 | 19,715,000 |
| PIBTL | 9.99 | 10.7 | 9.83 | -.64 | 17,721,000 |
| KEL | 3.74 | 3.88 | 3.66 | -.11 | 17,168,000 |
| FFBL | 25.41 | 26.38 | 24.78 | .34 | 14,276,500 |
