Stocks on Thursday continued rolling downhill as panic selling struck after more cracks appeared in economy amid fears a political crisis was lurking in the power corridors, traders said.
The KSE-100 Shares Index gave up 300.36 points or 0.66 percent to settle down at 45,296.88 points with the highest and lowest of the day being 45,938.77 points and 45,084.03 points.
Zafar Moti, former director of the PSX, said the market took a good start in the morning but in the second half, the panic was witnessed.
“When investors buy on better prices, unfavourable news usually panic them into selling,” he said.
“Weak diplomatic decisions were not in the favour of the country, as they affect the investor sentiment for the longer period. Political decisions from Islamabad are also being changed after every 15 minutes,” he said.
“Besides, an increase of 25bps in the policy rate was indicative of a further increase in the rate.”
Moti said the market was going to test 44,800 points level in the coming session despite bouncing back on Wednesday.
“Inflation reports related to daily consumable items were also creating fear. Pakistan’s food security is also crippled,” Moti said.
KSE-30 Shares Index also fell 218.45 points or 1.21 percent to 17,810.54 points.
Traded shares also decreased 140 million to 443.77 million from 583.73 million shares. Trading value dropped to Rs12.38 billion from Rs17.39 billion. Market capital reduced to Rs7.87 trillion from Rs7.93 trillion. Out of 514 companies active in the session, 143 advanced, 349 retreated, while 22 neither gained nor lost.
Ahsan Mehanti, an analyst at Arif Habib Corp, said stocks closed lower on uncertainty over the outcome of IMF talks next month and ADB forecast of 4 percent thin growth, short of SBP forecast of 4.5 percent and federal budget target of 4.8 percent for FY22.
SBP hike in the key policy rate, hike in govt treasury bond yields by 49bps and weak rupee factored in the tumble.
Sapphire Fiber was the top gainer, up Rs60 to close at Rs860/share, followed by Abbott Laboratories, down Rs47.26 to Rs788.72 per share.
Colgate Palmolive XDXB became the worst loser of the day by losing Rs47.04 to end at Rs2,310.01/share, followed by Gatron Industries, down Rs38.62 to finish at Rs476.38 per share.
Muhammad Arbash, an analyst at Topline Securities, said equities continued the sinking trend.
He said taking cue from yesterday’s low recovery, market opened on a positive note to make an intraday high of 342 points. However, this positivity didn’t sustain and profit-taking at one point brought it down to an intraday low of 513 points, Arbash added.
WorldCall Telecom led volumes chart with 89.12 million shares. It lost three paisas to close at Rs2.95/share.
It was followed by Hum Network with 29.21 million shares was next on the chart. The media stock ended lower by 25 paisas to settle at Rs6.0/share.
Stocks that recorded significant turnover included Telecard Limited, Treet Corp, Byco Petroleum, Unity Foods Ltd, K-Electric Ltd., Bank of Punjab, TPL Properties, and TPL Corp Ltd.
Turnover in the future contracts fell to 337.03 million shares from 338.08 million on Wednesday.