Bears rule the PSX; KSE-100 Index shed 314 points

KARACHI: The Pakistan bourse gave up to the selling pressure within an hour of the opening bell, as bears took over for the rest of the day, leading the market to close on a negative note.

An analyst at Pearl Securities said the global markets had been down on account of Russia invading Ukraine along with the fears of military conflict between Russia and Nato.

“The news of brewing conflict in the west has pushed the international oil prices above $95/bbl,” the analyst said.

Pakistan’s politics is heating up, as the opposition aims at presenting a no-confidence motion against the prime minister. Moreover, the news reports are making rounds that the local oil prices might jack up by Rs5 to 7/litre, signalling another round of high inflation.

The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares Index shed 0.99 per cent, or 314.16 points, to close at 45,644.09 points. The KSE-30 shares index shed 0.98 per cent, or 176.66 points, to close at 17,791.44 points.

As many as 349 scrips were active, of which 58 advanced, 273 declined and 18 remained unchanged.

The ready market volumes stood at 187.8 million shares, compared with the turnover of 170.6 million shares in the last trading session.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that the stocks slumped led by scrips across-the-board on global equity selloff, as investors weigh Ukraine crisis.

“Investors’ concerns on widening trade deficit and reports of falling cement sales, amid cut in the development budgets, rise in the industrial power tariff and political noise played a catalytic role in the bearish close.”

Going forward, analysts expect the market to remain under pressure; therefore, they suggest investors to adopt on sell on strength strategy.

The companies that reflected the highest gains included Mari Petroleum, up Rs25.82 to close at Rs1,774.06/share; and Khairpur Sugar, up Rs6.26 to close at Rs89.78/share.

The companies, which reflected the most losses included Rafhan Maize, down Rs495 to close at Rs10,405/share; and Allawasaya Textile, down Rs174.38 to close at Rs2,150.73/share.

The highest volumes were witnessed in WorldCall Telecom with a turnover of 33.5 million shares. The scrip shed 10 paisas to close at Rs2.05/share; followed by Telecard Limited with a turnover of 9.8 million shares. It shed Rs1.05 to close at Rs16.32/share. Ghani Global remained the third with a turnover of 7.8 million shares. It shed Rs1.28 to finish at Rs20.5/share.