KARACHI: On the first day of the trading week, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed all-round selling with the benchmark index after registering early gains fell over 337 points on Monday.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index witnessed a volatile start to the week, registering its intraday high at 46,402.73 (+175.08 points) and low at 45,763.05 (-464.60 points). It settled lower by 337.61 points at 45,890.04.
Among other indices, the KMI-30 Index plunged 722.68 points to end at 75,900.32, while the KSE All Share Index fell 203.61 points, closing at 31,647.57.
The overall market volumes appreciated from 694.80 million shares on Friday to 721.21 million shares (+4pc). Average traded value also increased by 4pc, from $156.4 million to $162.1 million.
Hum Network Ltd (HUMNL +6.83pc), Byco Petroleum Pakistan Ltd (BYCO +6.50pc) and TRG Pakistan Ltd (TRG +7.13pc) led the volume chart, exchanging 114.32 million, 109.08 million and 46.40 million shares, respectively.
Sectors that drove the benchmark index south included banking (-211.40 points), oil & gas exploration (-80.22 points) and cement (-43.22 pts). Among the companies, Habib Bank Ltd (HBL -72.78 points), United Bank Ltd (UBL -58.64 points) and Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (OGDC -33.85 points) dented the index the most.
Shedding 1.92pc from its cumulative market capitalization, the banking sector ended as the session’s worst performer, with Standard Chartered Bank (Pakistan) Ltd (SCBPL -1.42pc), MCB Bank Ltd (MCB -0.91pc) and United Bank Ltd (UBL -4.10pc) closing in the negative.
Equity markets around the world also showed a negative trend, whereas crude oil prices inched up from the previous close; WTI crude oil price appreciating 0.54pc to $59.56 while Brent crude price rising 0.58pc to $62.50 (as at 3:53 pm).
