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Thursday March 28, 2024

Shares back in red as virus, economy fears persist

By Our Correspondent
April 07, 2020

Stocks snapped last week’s gaining streak on Monday as investors were focusing more on the spread of the coronavirus in the country and the scale of economic damage caused by the outbreak, dealers said.

“Profit taking was observed in market … and can be attributed to drastic increase in number of COVID-19 cases in the country and decline in growth projection by international financing agencies,” brokerage Topline Securities said in a market note..

Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 shares index shed 3.30 percent or 1,042.64 points to close at 30,579.15 points level. KSE-30 shares index followed suit with a low of 3.49 percent or 488.74 points to end at 13,526.01 points level.

Of 339 active scrips, 47 up, 278 retreated, and 14 remained unchanged. The ready market volumes stood at 233.329 million shares, as compared with the turnover of 251.874 million shares in the previous session.

Cements again topped volumes chart with 31 percent of KSE-all shares volumes due to noise over PM's construction package.

Oil giant, OGDC defied trend for the day and remained upbeat with 2.6 percent gain during the day and took up 5 percent of KSE-100 index volumes.

Ovais Ahsan, CEO Optimus Capital said the market took a breather as profit taking swept in after an impressive rally of the last week. “Market sentiment turned bearish as fear of money flow going away into real estate sector emerged after recent incentives to the construction sector included the lure of not asking source of income for investors in the sector,” Ahsan said.

Dealers said concerns over the spread of the coronavirus also kept sentiment weak after a government report revealed an estimate of up to 50,000 cases expected to be reached by April 25.

Samiullah Tariq, director research at Arif Habib said profit taking staged in as the index during the preceding week recorded more than 12 percent gain. Moreover, the euphoria built owing to construction package already sets in the local bourses as cement and steel sectors gained sharply in the rally.

Tariq said worries about economic issues weigh heavily on investors’ mind as the lockdown has halted the production at the industries, hurting exports and slowing movement of raw materials within the country.

Faizan Munshey, head of foreign institutional sales at Next Capital said doubts about the fate of the economy in the face of the coronavirus hammered Pakistan stocks again, halting its best weekly gain since 2000 as the number of cases across the country increased.

The top gainers were Pakistan Tobacco, up Rs79.00 close at Rs1,677.00/share, and Sapphire Fibre Rs38.69 to finish at Rs554.69/share. Colgate Palmolive down Rs98.99 to close at Rs1,901.00/share, and Sapphire Textile Rs63.30 to close at Rs782.00/share, were the main losers.

Maple Leaf recorded the highest volumes with a turnover of 23.037 million shares. Whereas thescrip lost Rs1.76 end at Rs22.25/share. The lowest volumes were witnessed in Power Cement recording a turnover of 7.786 million shares, whereas the scrip lost Rs0.77 to end at Rs5.78/share.