KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed another bearish session on Tuesday amid political and geopolitical uncertainties, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index losing 388.62 points (-0.90 percent) to close at 42,878.35 points.
The index has shed around 1,673 points during the last two sessions. The PSX opened on a negative note on Tuesday but it switched between the red and green territories for most part of the session. However, the last hour trading witnessed huge selling pressure, which brought the benchmark index below the psychological level of 43,000.
The index moved in the red territory as international crude oil prices remained elevated due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which dented the investors’ confidence. Moreover, the Pakistani rupee plunged to an all-time lowest level of 178.61 against the US dollar during the day. Again, the gold prices surged to their highest level since August 2020 after breaching the $2,000 psychological mark.
Meanwhile, the opposition parties submitted the no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan in the National Assembly. A total of 86 lawmakers from the opposition parties signed the no-confidence motion, which also dented the market sentiment.
The KSE-100 Index moved in a range of 638.19 points, showing an intraday low of 42,788.53 points and a high of 43,426.72 points. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index shed 247.21 points (-0.83 percent) to close at 29,670.24 points, while KMI All Share Islamic Index shed 210.56 points (-0.97 percent) to close at 21,483.18 points.
A total of 348 companies traded shares in the stock exchange, out of them shares of 106 closed up, shares of 221 closed down while shares of 21 companies remained unchanged. Out of 91 traded companies in the KSE-100 Index, 20 closed up and 68 closed down and three remained unchanged.
The overall market volumes decreased by 10.77 million to 226.11 million shares. Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index decreased by 11.84 million to 93 million shares. The number of total trades increased by 130 to 114,116, while the value traded decreased by Rs1.09 billion to Rs7.12 billion. Overall, market capitalisation decreased by Rs61.52 billion.
Among scrips, TPL topped the volumes with 17.36 million shares, followed by UNITY (17.19 million) and GGL (16.9 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included TPL, UNITY, GGL, TRG and TPLP, which formed over 35 percent of total volumes.
In terms of rupee, RMPL remained the top gainer and witnessed an increase of Rs200 (1.7 percent) per share, closing at Rs11,999. The share price of RMPL climbed up for the 11th straight session. The runner-up was SFL, the share price of which climbed up by Rs56.76 (6.89 percent) to Rs880.01. NESTLE remained the top loser in terms of rupee and witnessed a decrease of Rs140 (2.53 percent) per share, closing at Rs5,400, followed by BATA, the share price of which declined by Rs57.51 (2.67 percent) to close at Rs2,092.49 per share.
The sectors taking the index towards south were commercial banks with 86 points, cement (68 points), oil & gas exploration companies (62 points), power generation & distribution (37 points) and oil & gas marketing companies (34 points). The scrip which took off most of the points from the index was LUCK which stripped the index of 37 points followed by PPL (37 points), HUBC (30 points), NBP (29 points) and OGDC (24 points).
The sectors taking the index towards north were chemical with 17 points, technology & communication (17 points), automobile parts & accessories (8 points), leather & tanneries (7 points) and tobacco (5 points). The scrip which added most points to the index was TRG which contributed 25 points followed by BAFL (14 points), EPCL (13 points), and THALL and SRVI (7 points each).
