KARACHI: Red ink splashed everywhere at the local bourse with the benchmarkKSE-100 index losing 644 points, to close at 42,359. The index continued toslide throughout the session, hitting a day’s low of -707 points towardsclose.
Market opened negative and continued its slide throughout the day. Thepressure continued from previous session where investors remained wary offoreign selling and continued deterioration in macro-economic outlook,while Moody’s report added to concerns as the Rating Agency downgradedPakistan’s outlook from stable to negative.
Downward trend was likely due to Moody’s Investors Services action ofdowngrading Pakistan’s rating to negative from stable. Moreover, currentaccount deficit (CAD) rose to $16 billion in the first 11 months of thisfiscal year, an increase of 43 per cent from the same period last year,said Danish Ladhani, an equity analyst.
Major heavyweights namely, Habib Bank Limited (HBL) losing 3.26 percent,Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) losing 2.06 percent, Oil Gas DevelopmentCompany (OGDC) losing 0.81 percent, Engro losing 0.77 percent, United BankLimited (UBL) losing 3.60 percent, MCB Bank losing 0.03 percent, PakistanOil Fields (POL) losing 1.30 percent, Fauji Fertilizer Company (FFC) losing0.08 percent and Lucky Cement losing 1.20 percent cumulatively contributed-273 points.
Traded volumes improved by 77 percent day-on-day ( DoD) to 242 millionshares while value traded increased to $76 million.
Top volume stocks were K-Electric with 2.48 percent decline, PIBTL with9.01 percent increase and TRG with 0.52 percent drop.
All the major sectors came under pressure including financials, cements andenergy. Ladhani expects market to remain volatile and choppy with flowsfrom local and foreign institutions directing the market.
Muhammad Arbash, research analyst at Elixir Securities expects market toremain dull with any positive development regarding the Amnesty Schemebeing the only near term trigger in sight.