KARACHI: Stocks plun­ged on Tuesday with the KSE-100 index recording a fall of 311 points (0.73 per cent) to close at 41,985.

The market opened positive and the benchmark spiked to intraday high by 233 points. But the index started to slide within an hour, wiping out all the early gains. Shares began to fall like ninepins all across the sectors, hitting an intraday low by 616 points.

Analysts said the market was due for a healthy “correction” after the KSE-100 index had ascended by 54pc from its March low of 27,229. Investors also decided to book profit at the high levels. Traders at a major brokerage house observed that the benchmark downturn was caused by closing of leveraged positions by retail investors.

The heavy fall in the international prices of oil and the skirmishes on the China-India boarder also caused a bit of unease. Foreign investors stepped aside while among the local participants, companies were the major sellers of equity worth $13.80 million.

Broker proprietary trading also sold off shares of $4.60m while value seeking individuals picked up stocks amounting to $15.18m following the old adage: “It’s time to buy when there is blood on the street”. Market capitalisation fell by Rs50 billion as 293 among the 431 active shares lost values whereas 120 came out as gainers.

The volume increased 18pc to 884m shares, from 749m while traded value was up by 18pc to reach $167.8m. Stocks that contributed significantly inclu­ded Hascol, Pakistan Inter­national Bulk Terminal, Power Cement, Pakistan Re­­­­finery and Byco Petroleum, which formed 38pc of total turnover.

Refinery sector particularly performed well with several stocks hitting upper circuit. Pressure was witnessed in the steel and cements stocks as investors favoured profit-taking. Major laggards were TRG, Habib Bank, MCB, Hascol and Oil and Gas Development Company while Systems, Jubilee Life and Byco were gainers.

Published in Dawn, September 9th, 2020