Market watch: KSE-100 loses over 550 points as panic continues

Benchmark KSE 100-share Index falls 553.76 points

KARACHI: The KSE-100 Index finished with a 1.11% fall on Wednesday, as tighter regulations over in-house financing and margin selling led to an over 550-point decrease, with the ongoing Panama case hearing adding to investor worry.

The benchmark-100 share index fell as much as 670 points, before investors resorted to value-buying. However, negative sentiment overweighed any buying momentum as the index ended near the 49,200 level.

Four strategic investors file bids for PSX stake

At close on Wednesday, the Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) benchmark KSE 100-share Index finished with a fall 1.11% or 553.76 points to end at 49,214.15.

Elixir Securities analyst Faisal Bilwani said Pakistan equities lost ground as benchmark KSE-100 Index settled 1.1% lower near 49,200.

“Despite a positive open, the wider market struggled to find a clear direction and traded in a narrow range on limited participation, as resumption of the court hearing on First family’s case over Panama allegations kept investors’ attention diverted until mid-day,” said Bilwani.

“Market then took a nosedive on reports of possible margin selling while new regulations and measures to enhance and improve risk management gave a good excuse for equities to correct.

“Index names along with speculative retail-driven stocks all came under pressure with K-Electric (KEL ,-1.7%) leading volumes on the KSE-100 and closing lower on news of energy regulator requesting details of recent M&A deal before giving a final nod on management handover.

“Moreover, Fauji Cement’s first-half earnings (FCCL,-2.6%) that were lower than consensus dented sentiment with most cement stocks closing lower in-line with wider market direction.

Meeting with apex regulator: Stock exchange suspends its chief regulatory officer

Topline Securities analyst Hammad Aman said the index continued its falling trend, declining by 553 points or 1.13% to close at 49,214 level, mainly due to rumors of margin selling.

“Reduction in the number of margin eligible securities acceptable as collateral also contributed to negative sentiments,” said Bilwani.

Thatta Cement Company announced 1HFY17 earnings per share of Rs4.0/share which led the stock price to shoot up from its lower limit to gain by 0.5%.

PSX emerges as Asia’s best-performing market in 2016

Trading volumes rose to 417 million shares compared with Tuesday’s tally of 353 million.

Shares of 413 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 102 stocks closed higher, 297 declined while 14 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs17.4 billion.

K-Electric Limited was the volume leader with 45.3 million shares, losing Rs0.17 to close at Rs9.92. It was followed by Power Cement with 39.4 million shares, gaining Rs0.78 to close at Rs20.72 and K-Electric Limited with 19.4 million shares, gaining 0.21 to close at Rs5.08.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs186 million during the trading session, according to data maintained by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited.