Karachi, April 21, 2020: Market opened -478 points today and continued the descent throughout the session, which extended to -1199 points by the end of session. The benchmark index closed -1078 points.
Concerns raised by IMF over G20 debt relief, announced last week by the Government, as well as hinting higher than expected inflation with a caution over the Policy rate cut caused the market to panic.
In addition, onslaught on WTI and Brent prices in the international market kept the bears active in Oil & Gas scrips, which saw OGD, PPL, POL, PSO, HASCOL on lower circuit breakers by the end of session. Banking sector stocks also adjusted downward by close.
Read More: LSM declines by 1.15 percent YoY during Feb-2020
Cement sector saw an initial selling pressure, but rallied on the hint of Cement prices to be increased in the coming days. Nonetheless, overall negative sentiment couldn’t save Cement sector stocks from selling pressure. Cement sector garnered 151.3M shares in trading volumes, followed by O&GMCs (28.6M) and Technology (21.4M). Among scrips, MLCF realized 39.6M shares, followed by FCCL (35.5M) and HASCOL (23M).
The Index closed at 32,422 points as against 33,500 points showing a decline of 1077 points (-3.2 percent DoD). Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P (-288 points), Fertilizer (-175 points), Power (-136 points), Banks (-124 points) and O&GMCs (-106 points).
Volumes declined from 399.9 million shares to 339.2 million shares (-15 percent DOD). Average traded value also declined by 12 percent to reach US$ 95.5 million as against US$ 106.2 million.
Read More: Oil prices turns into negative territory
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include MLCF, FCCL, HASCOL, DGKC and PIOC, which formed 41 percent of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively to the index include EFERT (+24 points), KOHC (+13 points), CHCC (+12 points), PAKT (+11 points) and BAHL (+11 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include ENGRO (-129 points), HUBC (-114 points), OGDC (-98 points), PPL (-94 points), and FFC (-62 points).
