KARACHI: The stock market witnessed a bloodbath on Wednesday as investors reacted to an alarming increase in the number of Covid-19 cases in addition to higher international oil prices, according to Arif Habib Ltd.

The market opened on a bleak note and stayed in the red zone throughout the day as mutual funds resorted to a sell-off. The cement sector stayed under pressure due to an uptick in international coal prices. As a result, hefty selling took place across the board in the last trading hour.

The benchmark index lost 673.98 points or 1.48 per cent from a day ago to close at 44,833.43 points.

Market participation increased 43.5pc to 236.9 million shares while the value of traded shares went up 14.5pc to $49.2m.

Sectors taking away the highest number of points from the benchmark index included cement (101.11 points), technology and communication (98.79 points), commercial banking (73.03 points), oil and gas exploration (50.07 points) and fertiliser (47.62 points).

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included WorldCall Telecom Ltd (27.32m shares), TRG Pakistan Ltd (20.19m shares), TeleCard Ltd (18.79m shares), Cnergyico PK Ltd (15.5m shares) and Hascol Petroleum Ltd (9.17m shares).

Shares contributing positively to the index included Habib Metropolitan Bank Ltd (8.99 points), Kot Addu Power Company Ltd (8.48 points), Bank Alfalah Ltd (1.05 points), Dolmen City REIT (0.67 points) and ICI Pakistan Ltd (0.67 points).

Stocks that took away the maximum number of points from the index included TRG Pakistan Ltd (93.89 points), Lucky Cement Ltd (39.43 points), Pakistan State Oil Company Ltd (32.79 points), Engro Corporation Ltd (22.41 points) and MCB Bank Ltd (21.53 points).

Stocks recording the biggest declines in percentage terms included TRG Pakistan Ltd, which went down 7.5pc, followed by Jahangir Siddiqui and Company Ltd (7.47pc), Attock Refinery Ltd (6.6pc), Azgard Nine Ltd (6.58pc) and Cnergyico PK Ltd (6.47pc).

Foreign investors were net buyers as they purchased securities worth $0.671m.

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2022