KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) took a beating on the first trading session of the week, with the indices heading south right from the word go as investors adopted a cautious approach ahead of the monetary policy announcement.
Global equity markets, on other hand, showed a positive trend, whereas crude oil prices also moved north from the previous close; WTI crude price appreciating 1.58pc to $43.09, while Brent crude oil price rising 1.71pc to $45.84.
“The market plunged almost 900 points intraday mainly on the back of rising corona cases and imposition of partial lockdowns in different cities, coinciding with the rollover week,” a report issued by Arif Habib Ltd read. “Oil & gas marketing companies, banks and cement sector stocks remained major contributors to this decline.”
MARKET SUMMARY
The benchmark KSE-100 Index remained in the red throughout the session, touching its intraday low at 39,314.28 after losing 872.90 points. It settled lower by 554.66 points at 39,632.52.
Among other indices, the KMI-30 Index plunged 960.27 points to end at 63,049.50, while the KSE All Share Index dropped 341.81 points, closing at 27,932.05.
The overall market volumes increased from 189.6 million shares in the previous session to 195.5 million (+3pc). Average traded value, however, declined by 1.4pc, from $47.05 million to $46.4 million. Hascol Petroleum Ltd (HASCOL -2.53pc), Unity Foods Ltd (UNITY -4.87pc) and TRG Pakistan Ltd (TRG -4.54pc) led the volume board, changing 15.42 million, 15.31 million and 13.32 million shares, respectively.
Sectors that drove the benchmark index south included banking (-120.98 points), cement (-65.19 points) and oil & gas marketing (-63.64 points). Among the companies, Habib Bank Ltd (HBL -29.50 points), Pakistan State Oil Company Ltd (PSO -25.64 points) and TRG Pakistan Ltd (TRG -25.60 points) dented the index the most.
Shedding 3.39pc from its cumulative market capitalization, the oil & gas marketing sector ended as session’s top loser, with Shell Pakistan Ltd (SHEL -3.94pc), Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Ltd (SNGP 5.52pc) and Hi-Tech Lubricants Ltd (HTL -4.33pc) closing in the negative.
