Daily Times

Stocks witnessed another tailspin on the last trading session of the week, as Kse-100 index slipped 606.09 points by the session closing to clock at 40,070.83 index level.

On Friday, the index attempted to sustain yesterday’s momentum during the early trade, however the index succumbed to selling pressure and extended losses amid worsening pandemic and lack of triggers. The market sentiments dwindled as investors responded to fresh micro-smart lockdown imposed in Karachi, after the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) expressed concern over an increase in Covid-19 cases, particularly in Karachi, which accounted for nearly half of the new cases registered countrywide on Tuesday. The negative perception was also coupled with anticipation of headline inflation, as the inflation for Sep’20 is likely to upswing amid higher food prices, investors seem to be cautious to take new positions since market has surged nearly 18% during outgoing 3rd quarter of fiscal year 2021.

The selling pressure witnessed in the later part of the session was primarily witnessed in Exploration & production stocks, which took a hammering following a sharp decline in international crude oil prices, whereas redemptions in mutual funds also prompted institutional sell-off. Moreover, investors also treaded cautiously due to mounting political noise and uncertainty in the country. The market participants continued to be wary of rising political noise which had kicked in ever since the PML-N president and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif was arrested by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Monday.

During the day, in a tense session Kse-100 index traded in a range of 933 points, and touched its intraday high at 40,838.92 after gaining 162.00 points before the midday break. The index, however, reversed its trend, and plunged to touch its intraday low at 39,905.66 after the index lost 771.26 points in the second half.

The index volumes depleted from 268.42 million shares recorded in the previous session to 255.94 million shares, while the overall market volumes also decreased from 371.73 million shares recorded in the previous session to 348.59 million shares.

The volume chart was led by Hascol Petroleum Limited followed by K-Electric Limited and TRG Pakistan Limited. The scrips exchanged 52.66 million, 35.08 million and 24.66 million shares, respectively.

Sectors which dented the index were Oil and Gas Exploration companies with 134 points, Oil and Gas Marketing companies with 77 points, Commercial Banks with 71 points, Cement with 57 points, Technology & Communication with 54, and Fertilizer with 46 points. Among the scrips, most points taken off the index was by Pakistan Petroleum Limited which stripped the index of 50 points followed by Oil & Gas Development Company Limited with 44 points, TRG Pakistan Limited with 36 points, and Pakistan Oilfields Limited with 33 points.

Global Markets: Stocks retreated after Trump test positive for Covid-19

Global markets took a beating on Friday after U.S president Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump both tested positive for Covid-19. U.S president’s diagnosis added more uncertainty to the election, an event that was already weighing on global market and keeping traders on edge as they attempted to evaluate the possible outcomes.

Most of the Asian markets remained closed while Japan’s Nikkei 225 declined 0.67% on the day to 23,029.90.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange returned to trade on Friday following a halting of trade yesterday caused by a hardware glitch.

Meanwhile, in Europe, stocks were battered amid mounting uncertainty over Covid-19 as investors held back on the day, looking for further information and news flow. Among major stocks, oil and gas and retail stocks led the losses, while construction and material stocks bucked the trend. Among the major bourses, Germany’s DAX led the losses and closed 0.84% lower, followed by CAC-40 in France which lost 0.61%. Following the trend, UK’s FTSE-100 also closed 0.32% lower.

In U.S, Wall Street succumbed to negative market sentiments following the news flow of Trump testing positive for Covid-`19. During the early trading , Dow Jones Industrial Average was trading down 200 points, after dropping 430 points at the open.

The S&P 500 and tech heavy Nasdaq Composite were also trading lower.