KARACHI: Bloodbath continued on the stock market on Friday following Pakistan’s downgrade to an authoritarian regime by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) amid persistent protests against alleged massive rigging in general elections as a result the benchmark KSE 100-share index plunged below the psychological barrier of 60,000.
Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said an inordinate delay in announcing the PMLN-PPP coalition government power-sharing formula was fuelling political uncertainty.
He said the IMF’s new conditions before releasing the last tranche of $1.2bn under the $3bn Stand-By Arrangement to liberalise imports and a fresh hike in gas prices effective Feb 1 also dented investor confidence.
He added that the Large-Scale Manufacturing contracted by 0.39pc in the first half of the current fiscal year despite a 3.4pc growth in December 2023.
Topline Securities Ltd said the market pessimism was the direct outcome of persistent political uncertainty concerning the formation of an upcoming coalition government as major parties have yet not reached a consensus.
Continuing the overnight bearish trend, the bourse commenced the trading on a negative note and remained in the red zone through the session.
As a result, the KSE-100 index closed at 59,872.96 points after plunging by 1,147.10 points or 1.88 per cent from the preceding session.
The overall trading volume dipped 8.94pc to 314.24 million shares. The traded value, however, increased by 3.11pc to Rs12.24bn on a day-on-day basis.
Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Pakistan K-Electric (41.83m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (25.77m shares), Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (20.69m shares), Pakistan Refinery Ltd (18.03m shares) and Pakistan International Airlines Corporation (14.37 shares).
Companies registering the biggest decreases in their share prices in absolute terms were Rafhan Maize Ltd (Rs134.35), Mari Petroleum Ltd (Rs68.86), Pakistan Tobacco Company Ltd (Rs67.82), Mehmood Textile Mills Ltd (Rs30.28) and Indus Motor Company Ltd (Rs26.61).
Shares registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Bhanero Textile Mills Ltd (Rs69.38), Hallmark Company Ltd (Rs22.67), Khyber Tobacco Ltd (Rs18.05), Gillette Pakistan Ltd (Rs8.92) and Siemens Pakistan Ltd (Rs7.50).
Foreign investors remained net buyers as they bought shares worth $2.28m.
Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2024
