The Pakistan Stock Exchange recorded a fall of 362.28 points or 0.73% to end at 49,392.44 points on Thursday, as jittery investors offloaded shares on rumours of Panama case verdict, causing the index to decline rapidly.
According to a report by Elixir Securities, equities lost ground as aggressive institutional selling in the final 30 minutes of trading pulled the KSE-100 index down 1%.
“The market opened lower with index-heavy oil stocks opening gap down and denting the KSE-100 index in early trade as investors tracked overnight losses in global crude after an unexpected surge in US stockpiles,” said an analyst from Elixir Securities.
The Oil and Gas Development Company (-2.3%) witnessed most of the selling pressure followed by Pakistan Petroleum (-1.6%) and Pakistan Oilfields (-2%).
“Later on, selective institutional interest primarily in Habib Bank (+0.8%), Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim (+1.7%) and Lucky Cement (+1.4%) helped the market to slowly recover and enter in the green zone by midday,” he said.
The last 30 minutes, however, wreaked havoc as stocks tumbled on reports of aggressive local institutional sellers in index names.
“[We] expect volatile trading in the two-session Friday with participants closely tracking institutional flows to gauge market direction,” he added.
Trading volumes fell to 220 million shares compared with Wednesday’s tally of 245 million.
Shares of 405 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 93 stocks closed higher, 294 declined while 18 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs 13.9 billion.
Azgard Nine was the volume leader with 12.3 million shares, losing 0.50 paisas to close at Rs 10.33. It was followed by Lotte Chemical with 11.1 million shares, losing 0.31 paisas to close at Rs 11.01 and K-Electric Limited with 10.4 million shares, losing 0.27 paisas to close at Rs 9.66.
