Stocks lose 324 points on negative economic triggers

KARACHI: Volatility rei­gned over the equities market on Thursday as unending political uncertainty coupled with a barrage of negative triggers on the economic front dampened the investors’ sentiments.

Rising yields in the latest auction of treasury bills along with continuing devaluation of the rupee against the dollar wreaked havoc on the mood of investors. The cement sector stayed under pressure throughout the day while across-the-board selling was witnessed in the last trading hour, leading the index to close in the red zone.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 43,786.83 points, down 324.27 points or 0.74 per cent from a day ago.

The trading volume increased 30.1pc to 141 million shares while the traded value went up 16.6pc to $26.5m on a day-on-day basis.

Sectors that took away the highest number of points from the benchmark index included commercial banking (105.37 points), cement (54.58 points), power generation and distribution (32.63 points), oil and gas exploration (31.18 points) and engineering (30.84 points).

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Ghani Global Holdings Ltd (11.14m shares), Pak Elektron Ltd (9.24m shares), K-Electric Ltd (7.69m shares), TeleCard Ltd (7.45m shares) and Ghani Global Glass Ltd (5.22m shares).

Shares contributing most negatively to the index included United Bank Ltd (53.07 points), The Hub Power Company Ltd (31.95 points), Meezan Bank Ltd (22.09 points), Lucky Cement Ltd (21.24 points) and Engro Polymer and Chemicals Ltd (18.14 points).

Stocks that contributed the maximum number of points to the index included Systems Ltd (16.53 points), Dawood Hercules Cor­poration Ltd (8.9 points), Fatima Fertiliser Company Ltd (6.92 points), Fauji Fertiliser Company Ltd (4.15 points) and Pakistan State Oil Company Ltd (3.86 points).

Shares that decreased the most in percentage terms were International Steels Ltd (6.99pc), Aisha Steel Mills Ltd (4.73pc), Nishat Chunian Ltd (3.94pc), Mughal Iron and Steel Industries Ltd (3.48pc) and United Bank Ltd (3.19pc).