KARACHI: After two straight recovery sessions following a ruthless bloodbath in the last week, the bears on Tuesday again drove the bulls out of the stock market, causing investors a staggering loss of Rs690 billion in a single day.
The market opened in the green and surged 1,112 points to hit an intraday high of 115,036.50. However, bears entered the market and wiped out 1,630 points to 112,294.42. Ultimately, it closed at 112,414.81 after losing 1,509.61 or 1.33pc day-on-day.
Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation attributed the market downturn to profit-taking witnessed amid pressure on future contracts rollover and uncertainty over the outcome of the government and PTI reconciliation talks.
He added that weak rupee, falling global crude oil prices and institutional selling in overbought scrips fuelled bearish activity at PSX.
Topline Securities Ltd said the market’s downturn was primarily driven by concerns over rising leverage positions, which heightened risk perceptions. This and increasing borrowing costs compelled investors to trim their portfolios. Furthermore, the approaching last few days of the December contract added additional pressure on market participants, resulting in cautious and selective trading behaviour.
The primary contributors to the upward movement were United Bank, Dawood Hercules, Sui Northern Gas Pipeline, TRG Pakistan, and Attock Petroleum, which added an impressive 351 points to the index. Conversely, Fauji Fertiliser, Mari Petroleum, MCB Bank, Hub Power, and Engro Corporation emerged as major laggards, dragging the index down by 850 points.
Ali Najib, Head of Sales at Insight Securities, said the market witnessed mixed trading. Some investors opted for profit-taking ahead of the calendar year-end. In contrast, others seized the opportunity to engage in value-hunting and selectively purchase stocks in the later half of the day.
The trading volume rose 2.65pc to 880.59 million shares while the traded value increased 5.72pc to Rs54.45bn day-on-day.
Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included WorldCall Telecom (127.40m shares), Fauji Foods (67.13m shares), Sui Southern Gas Company (33.55m shares), Cnergyico PK (33.36m shares) and K-Electric (30.25m shares).
The shares registering the most significant increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Hoechst Pakistan (Rs100.00), Shahmurad Sugar (Rs31.29), Blessed Textiles (Rs25.13), Ismail Industries (Rs24.24) and Faisal Spinning (Rs23.59).
The companies registering significant decreases in their share prices in absolute terms were Unilever Foods (Rs99.99), Nestle Pakistan (Rs97.35), Rafhan Maize (Rs50.00), Reliance Cotton (Rs48.71) and Pakistan Tobacco (Rs46.11).
Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2024
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