Stocks tumble 1,147 points on profit-taking

KARACHI: The national bourse witnessed on Wednesday a tumultuous session as bulls took control of the trading floor early in the day to lift the KSE-100 index to an intraday high of 667 points.

But bears entered the market all of a sudden and caused the index to drop the morning gains while plunging it to an intraday low of 2,000 points, said Topline Securities Ltd.

However, subsequent value hunting by investors recovered some of the lost gains and lifted the index from the day’s lowest point.

“The aforesaid selling can be attributed to market vibes suggesting institutional profit-taking ahead of the end of calendar year,” the brokerage said.

Consequently, fertiliser, technology, banking and exploration and production sectors received considerable selling headwinds.

As a result, the KSE-100 index closed at 65,280.16 points after losing 1,146.62 points or 1.73 per cent from the preceding session.

The overall trading volume increased 40pc to 1.3 billion shares. The traded value increased 39.8pc to Rs37.6bn on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included WorldCall Telecom Ltd (153.6m shares), the Bank of Punjab Ltd (106.2m shares), K-Electric Ltd (90m shares), Hascol Petroleum Ltd (77.8m shares) and Pakistan Telecommunication Ltd (47.5m shares).

Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Sapphire Fibres Ltd (Rs29.50), Mehmood Textile Mills Ltd (Rs23.82), Hoechst Pakistan Ltd (Rs20), Pakistan National Shipp­ing Corporation Ltd (Rs1­6.49) and Sapphire Textile Mills Ltd (Rs15).

Companies registering the biggest decreases in their share prices in absolute terms were Rafhan Maize Products Company Pakistan Ltd (Rs649), Nestle Pakistan Ltd (Rs194), Pakistan Toba­cco Company Ltd (Rs90.55), Mari Petro­leum Company Ltd (Rs80.58) and Pakistan Services Ltd (Rs60).

Foreign investors were net buyers as they purchased shares worth $1.86m.