KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) plunged on Tuesday for the second consecutive day amid political uncertainty and geopolitical tensions and closed on a negative note.
A day earlier, the bourse was under severe pressure and dropped nearly 1,500 points in intraday trading. On Tuesday, the benchmark KSE-100 index witnessed a further decline in opening hours and lost the 43,000 points level.
The KSE-100 dropped in early trading before rebounding and reaching the highest level of 43,426.72 points. It eventually continued its downward trajectory and reached it lowest point of 42,788.53 points. It closed with a decline of 388.62 points (-0.9%) and closed at 42,878.35 points before trading was suspended. The total volume of shares was 43.266 million valued at Rs5.18 billion.
Of the 91 traded companies in the KSE100 Index, 20 closed up 68 closed down, while 3 remained unchanged. Sector-wise, the index was let down by Commercial Banks with 86 points, Cement with 68 points, Oil & Gas Exploration Companies with 62 points, Power Generation & Distribution with 37 points and Oil & Gas Marketing Companies with 34 points.
The lower bench KSE 30 index also decreased by 155.82 points (-0.93%) and closed at 16,668.91 points. The total volume of shares was 60.5 million. The KMI 30 index closed at 68,954.98 points with a decrease of 907.90 (-1.30%) while the All Share Index plunged by 247.21 (-0.83%) and closed at 29,670.24 points. The total volume of share traded were 226.052 million at the stock market.
The highest number of shares traded belonged to TPL Corp Ltd (TLP -8.73%) which traded 17.359 million. This was followed by Unity Foods Ltd (UNITY -5.93%), Ghani Global Holdings Ltd (GGL -5.93%), and TRG Pakistan Ltd (TRG 2.62%). The number of scrips traded were 17.186 million, 16.902 million, and 14.123 million, respectively.
The Russia and Ukraine military conflict rages on amidst talks of a ban on Russian oil and gas sales by the United States. International commodity prices are on an upward trajectory. On the local political front, the opposition has submitted an application to file a no-confidence motion against the prime minister. These developments had mixed reactions at the stock market as bears remained in firm control.
