ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed a decline on Thursday as the benchmark KSE-100 Index plunged 1,634.22 points amid heavy selling pressure, closing at 110,301.16—down 1.46 percent.
According to experts concerns regarding shortfalls in meeting the International Monetary Fund (IMF) targets have also caused a negative sentiment among investors.
The IMF mission is expected to arrive in Pakistan by the end of February or early March for the first review of the $7 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) programme.
Selling was observed in key sectors including commercial banks, fertiliser, oil and gas exploration companies and OMCs. Index-heavy stocks including PSO, SHEL, SSGC, SNGPL, MARI, OGDC, POL, PPL, HBL, MCB, MEBL, NBP and UBL traded in the red.
“We think that investors are not finding current levels as attractive; top dividend yield (DY) stocks are offering barely 2 percentage point (ppt) higher yield over comparable government’s securities,” said Intermarket Securities, in a note.
Overall, 598,930,638 shares were traded during the day as compared to 436,325,053 shares the last working day, whereas the price of shares stood at Rs 25.627 billion against Rs 23.225 billion on the previous trading day.
As many as 435 companies transacted their shares in the stock market, 101 of them registered gains and 286 met losses, whereas the share price of 48 companies remained unchanged.
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The three top trading companies were Silk Bank Limited with 119,523,297 shares at Rs 1.19 per share followed by WorldCall Telecom with 80,384,932 shares at Rs 1.52 per share whereas as Bank Makramah settled with 64,937,708 shares at Rs 4.15 per share.
Nestle Pakistan Limited recorded a maximum increase of Rs 51.11 per share closing at Rs 7,440.36 whereas Haleon Pakistan Limited was the runner-up with Rs 30.39 rise in its share price to close at Rs 874.78.
Unilever Pakistan Foods Limited witnessed a maximum decline of Rs 83.70 per share price, closing at Rs 22,315.50, whereas the runner-up was Sazgar Engineering Works Limited with a fall of Rs 46.60 in its per share price to Rs 1,094.36.
On Tuesday, profit-taking at the PSX pushed the KSE-100 Index down by 810 points to close at 111,935.38.
Globally Asia shares rose on Thursday, tracking gains on Wall Street following a see-saw session, while US Treasury yields came under pressure after mixed economic data.
