KARACHI: Stocks went into a tailspin by mid-day on the first trading day of the week, which saw it hit the intraday low of 772 points with red splashed across the sectors. The panic subsided in about the last trading hour as investors in the lead of insurance companies scooped to pick up blue-chips that had dropped to attractive levels.

Jobbers and small investors’ interest was also revived in the essentially speculative stocks. The bears were thus pushed backed and the index closed with pared losses of 272 points or 0.6pc at 45,593.

The index opened in the green with investors interest mainly concentrated in the major issue regarding the Supreme Court opinion on the upcoming Senate elections. Investors mainly decided to keep the liquidity intact rather than hold on to positions.

However, the court opined that the elections of the upper house would be held under Article 226 of the Constitution through secret balloting. The other major point of interest for the investors was the financial figures of TRG Pakistan Ltd — the stock that has gained the most in the last one year. The board meeting of TRG was held on Friday evening.

Sectors that ceded most points from the index included banks (103 points), textile (27 points), pharma (26 points), power (23 points), technology (19 points) and chemical (22 points).

The trading volume declined 23pc to 368.3m shares from 479.9m shares the previous day. The average traded value also fell by 29pc to $116.4m from $162.8m.

Stocks that contributed significantly to the volume include Azgard Nine, TRG, Unity Foods, Hum Network and Byco, which formed 32pc of total turnover. Major selling was witnessed by companies while foreign investors stood on the sidelines.

The major scrips that wiped out most points from the index were UBL (38 points), HBL (32 points), BAHL (18 points), PSO (13 points), and Mari Petroleum (12 points). Among the few stocks that traded positive included STCL, MUGHAL, ATRL and NRL.

Published in Dawn, March 2nd, 2021