Daily Times

Pakistan Stock Exchange bled red as benchmark KSE 100 Index nosedived by over 1,100 points during intra-day trading in the wake of the detailed verdict of a special court in the high treason case against former president General (r) Pervez Musharraf as political crisis exacerbates.

The benchmark index opened at 41,603 points but started to fall around midday as the market anticipated the release of the detailed verdict. The KSE 100 Index marked its intraday high at 41,796.33 before dipping steeply by 1381.97 points to record its intraday low at 40,414.36. After recovering some of its losses in the last hour of the session the index still closed lower by 948.34points to clock at 40,655.37. The KMI 30 Index saw a similar pattern, registering its high at 67455.28and low at 64948.76points before closing at 65409.33(-1725.69points).Similarly , the KSE All Share Index plunged further to, ending the day down by 669.38 points at28866.67.

All Share Volume decreased by 16.05 Million to 260.14 Million Shares. Market Cap decreased by Rs.181.90 Billion. The overall market volumes contracted by 6.15pc to 260.07 million, while the total traded value was recorded at $73.20 million, well below its five-day average of $86.19 million. The volume was led by Unity Foods Limited (UNITY -2.97%) followed by Right Shares of Hascol Petroleum Limited (HASCOLR1 -8.22%) and Fauji Foods Limited (FFL -5.97%). The scripts exchanged 26.40 million, 13.22 million and 12.57 million shares, respectively.

Sector wise, the index was let down by Commercial Banks with 212 points, Oil & Gas Exploration Companies with 172 points, Fertilizer with 94 points, Power Generation & Distribution with 68 points and Cement with 63 points.

The most points taken off the index was by Habib Bank Limited which stripped the index of 71 points followed by Oil and Gas Development Company Limited with 60 points, Pakistan Petroleum Limited with 57 points, Hub Power Company Limited with 54 points and Dawood Hercules Corporation Limited with 52 points.

Meanwhile, foreign investors continued to be the net buyers for the ninth consecutive week, indicating that their confidence on the local market has increased as the total purchase of securities during the week via Special Convertible Rupee Account (SCRA) outstripped total sale by around Rs. 5.7 million as on December 13, 2019.

According to a weekly report on Specially Convertible Rupee Accounts (SCRA) released by the State Bank of Pakistan, the gross sale of securities during the week was recorded at Rs.15.6 billion, which is around 62.3 percent lower than the figures recorded last week. Similarly, the total purchase of securities stood at Rs.21.3 billion, which is 54.5 percent lower than the prior week.

Consequently, the net purchase of securities for the week ended December 13, 2019 clocked in at Rs.5.71 billion, i.e. around Rs.197.72 million higher than last week’s numbers.

Foreign Investors parked most of their money in T-bills and PIBs, as the participation of investment in T-Bills and PIBs witnessed an increase of Rs 5.34 billion and Rs 1.14 billion respectively.

Over the week, the overall purchase of securities declined by Rs.25.49 billion while the net sale of securities tumbled by Rs.25.69 billion. Apart from this, the inflow of remittance into these accounts stood at Rs.9.81 billion, while its outflow has been reported at Rs.5.38 billion. The closing balance of SCRA was recorded at Rs.29.13 billion, which marks a decline of Rs.1.07 billion over the week.

In Asia,: Stock Markets traded fractionally lower amid lack of momentum and stimulus. Investors booked profits ahead of holiday trade and waited for further data on the state of the global economy.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng traded 0.30% lower as shares of index heavyweight Tencent dropped over 1%. In Japan Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 closed 0.29% lower to clock at lose at 23,864.85amid shares of Family Mart dropped over 2%.Shares in Japan were lower on Thursday as the Bank of Japan (BoJ) kept monetary policy steady. In its statement, the Bank of Japan said, “Japan’s economy is likely to continue on a moderate expanding trend, as the impact of the slowdown in overseas economies on domestic demand is expected to be limited, although the economy is likely to continue to be affected by the slowdown for the time being.” BOJ’s maintained its short-term rate target at -0.1% and that for 10-year bond yields around 0%.

The central bank also kept intact its assessment that Japan’s economy continues to expand moderately as a trend, pointing to an expected boost to growth from the government’s $122 billion spending package unveiled on Dec. 5.But the BOJ offered a gloomier view on factory output, a nod to the fallout from soft global demand and trade tensions. “Industrial production is falling due mainly to natural disasters,” the BOJ said in a statement, revising down its view from October when it said output was moving sideways.

The Shanghai composite was largely unchanged at 3,017.07 while the Shenzhen composite gained 0.21% to around 1,713.03. South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.08% to close slightly higher at 2,196.56. Shares of chipmaker SK Hynix advanced 0.65% on the back of Micron posting a first-quarter beat on the top and bottom line.

In a major announcement The Bank of England has held its policy interest rate steady at 0.75% with its rate-setting committee voting 7-2 in favor of keeping the current level.

The central bank maintained the dovish stance exhibited after its previous meeting, commenting in an accompanying statement: “If global growth fails to stabilize or Brexit uncertainties remain entrenched, monetary policy may need to reinforce the expected U.K. recovery.”

Its forecast for U.K. GDP (gross domestic product) growth in the fourth quarter of 2019 was cut to +0.1% from the November forecast of +0.2%, reflecting the weakening of economic conditions shown in recent data. The Bank said business investment and export orders have remained weak, adding that the financial markets have remained sensitive to domestic policy developments.