Karachi, November 23, 2020: Carnage was witnessed at the local bourse as the KSE100 index made an intraday low of -873 points before closing at 39,632 level (down 1.4 percent).
Market remained under duress mainly due to the Prime Minister’s caution that a continued rise in infections at the current rate would compel a complete lockdown and the PDM will be responsible for consequences.
Moreover Federal minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood said that schools across the country will remain closed until January 10, 2021, in the wake of rising coronavirus cases. Overall 195mn shares were traded throughout the day where HASCOL (-5.9 percent), UNITY (-2.5 percent), TRG (-4.5 percent), WTL (-4.0 percent) and PRL (-4.1 percent) cumulatively contributing 62mn shares to the total volume.
Pressure was witnessed across the board where HBL (-1.4 percent), TRG (-4.5 percent), PSO (-2.8 percent), MEBL (-2.3 percent), SNGP (-5.5 percent), MCB (-1.0 percent) and MLCF (-3.2 percent) were the major losers for the day.
On the news front, the monetary policy committee (MPC) decided to maintain the policy rate at 7 percent. Moving forward, we expect market to remain bearish due to political uncertainty and global rise in corona cases. Hence, we recommend investors to avail any opportunity to buy on dips.
