KARACHI: A bearish rampage took hold of the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Wednesday as the benchmark index dropped because of reduced investors’ confidence.

Topline Securities said no positive development took place on the front of the International Monetary Fund programme, which hurt investors’ sentiments. In addition, continuous institutional selling in the run-up to the end of 2022-23 kept the overall mood in the negative territory throughout the day.

Arif Habib Ltd said the benchmark dipped to the red zone on the unstable economic situation that forced investors to trim their positions. Volumes remained healthy with third-tier stocks leading the volume board.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 40,220.80 points, down 432.23 points or 1.06 per cent from the preceding session.

The overall trading volume decreased 22.3pc to 97 million shares. The traded value went down 12.5pc to $12.3m on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included WorldCall Telecom Ltd (11.6m shares), BankIslami Pakistan Ltd (7.8m shares), Shell Pakistan Ltd (4.6m shares), the Bank of Punjab Ltd (4.4m shares) and Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (3.5m shares).

Sectors contributing the most to the index performance were chemical (-67.2 points), exploration and production (-51.4 points), technology and communication (-50.2 points), commercial banking (-50.2 points) and fertiliser (-45.9 points).

Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were JS Global Capital Ltd (Rs6.73), Gatron Industries Ltd (Rs4.42), Lucky Core Industries Ltd (Rs3.67), Pakistan Hotels Devel­opers Ltd (Rs3) and Atlas Honda Ltd (Rs2.60).

Companies that recorded the biggest declines in their share prices in absolute terms were Allawasaya Textile and Finishing Mills Ltd (Rs164), Bata Pakistan Ltd (Rs85.57), Colgate-Pal­molive Pakistan Ltd (Rs84.58), Mehmood Textile Mills Ltd (Rs73.91) and Blessed Textiles Ltd (Rs29.07).

Published in Dawn, June 22nd, 2023