KARACHI: The stocks witnessed an exceedingly volatile session on Thursday where investors started to jettison shares as soon as the market opened which saw the KSE-100 index sink to intraday low by a massive 1,420 points and hit new CY20 low of 36,918.

Major reason that triggered panic selling was reports of the first two cases of individuals testing positive for coronavirus in the country. As better sense prevailed, the market calmed down in late trading so as to recover nearly 82pc of the day’s loss and close in the red by 251.01 points (0.65 per cent) at 38,087.32.

Second last day of the rollover week also exerted pressure on the index due to short coverings. Analysts said the recovery could be attributed to investors’ realisation that market had factored in impact of coronavirus to a large extend, as the index has declined by 5.4pc alone during the ongoing week.

But figures released by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan showed that insurance companies, which bought stocks worth a huge $9.15 million, supported by also an extraordinarily heavy buying by banks in the sum of $3.64m were at the back of major bounce back in stock values as they almost entirely covered the selling by foreigners worth $5.25m; by mutual funds $5.91m and individuals who dumped equities of $1.77m.

The volume increased 68pc to 248.9m shares, from 147.9m while traded value also surged 44pc to reach $64.7m. Recovery was spearheaded by banking and cement as decent progress in terms of despatches led stocks in the latter to improve values.

Scrip-wise, major losers were Pakistan Petroleum, declining 3.2pc, Oil and Gas Development Company 2.6pc, Pakistan Oilfields 2.8pc and Bank Al Habib 2pc while gainers included Habib Bank, increasing by 1.2pc, United Bank 3.6pc, Maple Leaf Cement 4.9pc, DG Khan 3.1pc, Lucky 1.2pc and Pioneer Cement 4pc.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2020