Stocks continue to slide on coronavirus; index down 3.17pc

Stocks sunk further on Tuesday as fears over the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic continue to grip the investors and the market plunged over three percent on across the board selling, dealers said.

“The market opened on an indecisive note as it traded tentatively in the green initially with low volumes. However, increasing cases of coronavirus spooked skeptical investors as they rushed to offload their holding,” brokerage Topline Securities said in a post market note.

Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 shares index lost 3.17 percent or 1,067.98 points to close at 32,616.93 points level. KSE-30 shares index followed suit with a low of 3.66 percent or 543.84 points to end at 14,321.08 points level.

Of 355 active scrips, 86 up, 251 retreated, and 18 remained unchanged. The ready market volumes stood at 240.379 million shares, as compared with the turnover of 215.437 million shares in the previous session.

Analysts said concerns over global equity selloff and foreign outflows also weighed on today’s rout. Salman Ahmad, head of institutional sales at Aba Ali Habib said key reason for the market’s fall out has been due to corona virus, which sent shivering signals to the market men.

“Moreover, the crude oil prices, which dipped below 30 dollars per barrel, impacted the oil and gas exploration sectors in the local market,” Ahmad said. Samiullah Tariq, director research at Arif Habib said two sessions decline at the local bourse has been largest in the history.

“Investors and people at large fear of spreading would curtail business activities in the country especially the exports as several countries have been observing lock down” Tariq said. “Moreover the country would require some more funds to meet the expenses arising from tackling corona virus issue hitting across the globe.”

Faizan Munshey, head of foreign institutional sales at Next Capital said the market continued

its downward momentum despite expectations of an interest rate cut. “Depression at the global stock markets and continuous decline in the crude oil prices affected all the regional markets where KSE-100 index was also not spared.”

The market during the preceding week dropped by 2,158 points and with two sessions onslaught in all the index has suffered a drop of 5,800 points, where the market capitalisation wiped in excess of nearly Rs900 billion.

The top gainers were Sapphire Fibre, up Rs50.59 close at Rs729.99/share, and Shezan International Rs19.01 to finish at Rs334.00/share. Unilever Foods down Rs150.00 to close at Rs6950.00/share, and Colgate Palmolive down Rs117.55 to close at Rs2249.39/share, were the main losers.

Bank of Punjab recorded the highest volumes with a turnover of 24.610 million shares. Whereas the scrip lost Rs0.6 end at Rs8.50/share. The lowest volumes were witnessed in Pakistan Petroleum recording a turnover of 5.687 million shares, whereas the scrip lost Rs4.23 to end at Rs82.67/share.