KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Tuesday went into a free-fall amid growing economic, political and security concerns causing nervous selling by jittery investors, dragging the benchmark KSE 100 index down by 2,577.63 in intraday trade.

However, the market started to calm down before the end of trading hours, and the index almost fully recovered mid-session losses on value-hunting across the board.

Topline Securities Ltd said the KSE-100 index closed at 116,052.68, a decline of 202 points, or 0.17 per cent day-on-day. The market saw extreme volatility, with the index reaching a high of 116,843 and a low of 113,677.

A statement from the prime minister, indicating that the government is considering reducing electricity rates, played a role in the recovery of share prices.

The decline in the index was primarily driven by Engro Fertiliser, Fauji Fertiliser, Habib Bank, Attock Refinery, and PSO, wiping out 433 points. Conversely, Engro Holding, Oil and Gas Development, and TRG Pakistan helped offset the losses, adding 436 points.

Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said the equities market witnessed mixed activity on political noise and economic uncertainty.

He added that the government actions on industrials to qualify for the second tranche of $1bn due in March following an International Monetary Fund’s assessment, weak rupee and geo-political tensions continued fuelling bearish sentiments.

As a result, the trading volume dipped 3.29pc to 792.77 million shares while the traded value rose 3.56pc to Rs39.64bn day-on-day.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included WorldCall Telecom (80.58m shares), Cnergyico PK (76.60m shares), K-Electric (45.70m shares), Fauji Foods (36.98m shares) and Sui Southern Gas (33.35m shares).

The shares registering the most significant increases in their share prices in absolute terms were JDW Sugar Mills (Rs74.79), Lucky Core Industries (Rs51.67), Rafhan Maize (Rs32.17), Unilever Foods (Rs30.06) and Sazgar Engineering Works (Rs24.61).

The companies registering significant decreases in their share prices in absolute terms were Hallmark Company (Rs89.38), Nestle Pakistan (Rs75.39), Attock Refinery (Rs47.05), Mehmood Textile (Rs41.54) and Khyber Textile (Rs33.75).

Published in Dawn, January 8th, 2025