Market watch: Stocks hammered as index dives over 1,000 points

Benchmark KSE-100 index decreases 3.3% to settle at 30,579.15

KARACHI: Following a phenomenal rally in the past week, bears once again clawed their way back to the Pakistan Stock Exchange, snapping a four-day winning streak to drag the index below the 31,000-point mark.

After a brief open in the positive, the index dived more than 1,000 points as buying euphoria over the prime minister’s financial package faded amid mounting coronavirus cases.

Furthermore, a downward revision of Pakistan’s projected GDP growth by the World Bank and Asian Development Bank also dampened interest of market participants.

Next Capital Limited Head of Foreign Sales Faizan Munshey said, “Doubts about the fate of economy in the face of the coronavirus hammered Pakistan stocks again on Monday, halting its best weekly gain since 2000 as the number of virus cases across the country increased.”

He pointed out that delay in the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) meeting, which was scheduled for Monday to ease the crude supply glut, added to the sell-off.

The construction package announced by the PM on Friday failed to excite investors as they feared the coronavirus would shut down the economy longer than expected, he added.

At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded a decrease of 1,042.64 points, or 3.30%, to settle at 30,579.15.

Meanwhile, a report of Aba Ali Habib Securities stated, “We believe a rise in novel coronavirus cases causing the economic slowdown continues to haunt investors as confirmed cases crossed 3,000 with over 50 deaths reported so far.”

An Arif Habib Limited report said the market opened on a positive note, however, it lost momentum that was observed on the last trading day on Friday, when the market went up.

“Selling pressure kept mounting that brought the index down by 1,119 points during the session and it ended down by 1,043 points. Selling pressure was seen almost across the board. Exploration and production stocks held some ground and registered decent volumes in range-bound activity.”

Sectors contributing to the performance included banks (down 297 points), fertiliser (143 points), cement (121 points), power (93 points) and oil and gas marketing companies (62 points).

Stocks that contributed positively to the index were OGDC (up 33 points), Pakistan Tobacco (22 points), Bank AL Habib (10 points), Jubilee Life Insurance (6 points) and Standard Chartered Bank (4 points).

Stocks that contributed negatively included HBL (down 80 points), MCB (71 points), Hubco (62 points), Engro (57 points) and UBL (56 points).

Overall, trading volumes decreased to 233.3 million shares compared with Friday’s tally of 251.9 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs8.7 billion.

Shares of 339 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 47 stocks closed higher, 278 declined and 14 remained unchanged.

Maple Leaf Cement was the volume leader with 23 million shares, losing Rs1.76 to close at Rs22.25. It was followed by Hascol Petroleum with 20.2 million shares, gaining Rs0.07 to close at Rs13.85 and K-Electric with 17 million shares, losing Rs0.23 to close at Rs2.76.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs954.6 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.