Bears wreaked havoc at Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) today as equities witnessed a panic-struck sell-off on Tuesday amid severe political turmoil.
The benchmark KSE-100 index appeared bearish from the opening bell and immediately dropped into the red zone, losing 800+ points after trading resumed on Tuesday morning.
The top index lost 877 points, or ~2 percent, to plummet below 47,000 points to 46,600 at 2:05 PM.
Gaining 100 points initially, the benchmark KSE 100 index recorded an intraday high of 47,372. Shortly after, it plunged to a day’s low of 46,598. The index settled lower by 708 points at 46,770. The KMI 30 index lost 1,764 points settling at 78,055 points. Meanwhile, the KSE All Share index went down by 393 points closing at 31,115.
The market is under considerable pressure in the second full week of the caretaker government’s tenure, owing largely to political uncertainty in the country and aggravating economic indicators. Economic and political tensions have impacted investor confidence to a certain degree today which is reflected in reduced market volumes at day’s end. Selling by institutional investors was observed after former Prime Minister Imran Khan today was re-arrested a few moments after the Islamabad High Court released him on bail in the Toshakhana case. He will stay in judicial custody and will be produced in court on Wednesday, August 30.
The market is constantly falling. The most prominent and perhaps decisive factor is the US dollar’s movement against the PKR, which has increased the current account deficit and put the economy in the rough.
Top Volumes
SCRIP PRICE HIGH LOW CHANGE VOLUME
WTL 1.2 1.24 1.19 -0.03 27,409,040
KEL 1.99 2.06 1.98 -0.02 14,731,834
DFML 16.53 16.53 15.35 0.94 9,549,974
NCPL 22.3 24.0 22.07 -1.69 9,017,000
PPL 70.95 73.5 70.63 -2.19 8,315,062
FCCL 11.15 11.88 11.0 -0.56 8,250,000
TPLP 12.9 13.08 12.53 -0.19 7,520,114
Top contributors to the volume chart were Worldcall Telecom Limited, K-Electric Limited, and Dewan Farooque Motors Limited. The scrips had 27.4 million shares, 14.7 million shares, and 9.5 million shares traded, respectively.
Overall, equity markets across the globe were trending downward. Crude oil prices rose, with WTI crude oil rising 0.29 percent to $80.33, while the price of Brent crude oil increased by 0.36 percent to $84.72.
Source: Pro Pakistani