Karachi, March 18, 2020: Market showed its disappointment to SBP’s Policy Rate cut in full force. Market halt activated at -1683 points 10:17PM with 57 million shares, an reopened at -1731 points with 66 million shares traded on KSE100.
Situation worsened over time and majority of stocks hit lower circuits, causing the Index to plunge by a total of 2238 points during the session. Market closed -2201 points (unadjusted).
Although international markets traded positive yesterday but the Futures of respective indices failed to maintain the momentum, which also caused investors to stay cautious. Banking sector registered trading volume of 32.8 million shares, followed by Power (31 million) and Cement (22.7 million). Among scrips, KEL topped the volumes with 25.5 million shares, followed by BOP (19.5 million) and HIFA (9.1 million).
The Index closed at 30,416 points as against 32,617 points showing a decline of 2201 points (-6.7 percent DoD). Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (-582 points), Fertilizer (-320 points), E&P (-292 points), Cement (-198 points) and Power (-164 points).
Volumes declined from 240.4 million shares to 186.7 million shares (-23 percent DoD). Average traded value also declined by 53 percent to reach US$ 33.5 million as against US$ 71.3 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include KEL, BOP, HIFA, MLCF and UNITY, which formed 36 percent of total volumes. Stocks that contributed negatively include HBL (-145 points), ENGRO (-143 points), HUBC (-121 points), MCB (-105 points), and FFC (-101 points).
