Karachi, March 09, 2020: Market witnessed bloodbath situation, which was triggered by the crashing of oil price from US$45/bbl on Friday’s opening to US$ 28/bbl today (a staggering 62 percent decline).
Resultantly, oil stocks hit lower circuit breakers, with OGDC and PPL showing offers of 16 million and 13 million throughout the day. Similar situation was observed in O&GMCs.
During the session, the benchmark KSE100 index sustained a loss of 2302 points but staged a recovery of 1142 points, closing 1161 points down. Stocks, all and sundry, hit lower circuit in the early part of the session, when KSE30 crossed 4 percent and market came to halt for 45 minutes.
That offered an opportunity in Cyclicals (namely Cement and Steel Sector stocks), which appealed investors not only due to near term fundamentals but also because of safe haven demand. Resultantly, Cement and Steel sector stocks turned around from lower circuits and went up to hit upper circuits.
Cement Sector led the trading volumes with 79.8 million shares, followed by Banks (42.6 million) and Power (27.8 million). Among scrips, FCCL topped the charts with 30.6 million shares, followed by BOP (22.9 million) and MLCF (22.5 million).
The Index closed at 37,058 point against 38,220 point showing a decline of 1161pts (-3 percent DoD). Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (-560 point), E&P (-353 point), Fertilizer (-155 point), O&GMCs (-104 point), Power (-98 point), Cement (+206 point) and Engineering (+20 point).
Volumes increased from 244.4 million shares to 308.0 million shares (+26 percent DoD). Average traded value however managed to decrease by a miniscule 0.2 percent to reach US$ 73.3 million against US$ 73.5 million the other day.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include FCCL, BOP, MLCF, KEL and TRG, which formed 36 percent of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively include LUCK (+104 point), DGKC (+27 point), MLCF (+21 point), FCCL (+20 point) and KTML (+13 point). Stocks that contributed negatively include HBL (-168 point), UBL (-120 point), OGDC (-114 point), PPL (-114 point), and ENGRO (-94 point).
