Karachi, March 17, 2020: Market opened on a negative note today with -319 points and 1.4 million shares traded at the opening bell. Yesterday’s negative close of world financial markets, especially US Markets caused damage to investor sentiment and positive opening of US Futures Indices and rebound of international crude oil prices failed to stem the selling pressure.
Banks and E&P stocks traded at and near lower circuit breakers. Cement sector traded positive in the early session, however, news of abrupt cancellation of PSL (Pakistan Super League) due to fear of spread of Corona virus reversed the gains in Cement sector.
Hope of a major rate cut by Central Bank seems to fade away with Indian Central Bank’s decision to maintain status quo, which also resulted in selling pressure.
Cement sector posted trading volumes of 63.3 million shares followed by Banks (45.9 million) and O&GMCs (20.8 million). Among scrips, BOP led the volumes with 24.6 million shares, followed by PIOC (20 million) and MLCF (15.5 million).
The Index closed at 32,617 points as against 33,684 points showing a decline of 1068 points (-3.2 percent DoD). Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (-531 points), E&P (-147 points), Cement (-85 points), O&GMCs (-65 points), Textile (-63 points) and Fertilizer (+23 points).
Volumes increased further from 215.4 million shares to 240.4 million shares (+12 percent DoD). Average traded value, on the contrary, increased by 40 percent to reach US$ 71.3 million as against US$ 50.9 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include BOP, PIOC, MLCF, HASCOL and UNITY, which formed 43 percent of total volumes. Stocks that contributed positively include ENGRO (+13 points), FFC (+13 points), EPCL (+10 points), HMB (+7 points) and DGKC (+6 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include HBL (-156 points), UBL (106 points), MCB (-102 points), LUCK (-80 points) and PPL (-63 points).
