Daily Times

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) plummeted for the third consecutive day on Wednesday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index shedding another 584.82 points (-1.3 percent) to close at 44,363.7 points.

Overall, the market shed over 2,100 points during the last three sessions, mainly due to lack of triggers, rollover week and upcoming mini-budget. The market opened on a negative note and remained negative for the whole session, except entering the green territory for a few minutes.

The KSE-100 Index moved in a range of 776.08 points, showing an intraday high of 44,983.91 points and a low of 44,207.83 points. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index shed 349.36 points (-1.13 percent) to close at 30,462.82 points, while All Share Islamic Index shed 219.77 points (-1 percent) to close at 21,650.27 points.

A total of 347 companies traded shares in the stock exchange, out of them shares of 80 closed up, shares of 247 closed down while shares of 20 companies remained unchanged. Out of 92 traded companies in the KSE-100 Index, 17 closed up, 72 closed down and three remained unchanged.

The overall market volumes increased by 45.78 million to 310.39 million shares. Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index increased by 29.57 million to 140.13 million shares. The number of total trades increased by 15,533 to 134,244, while the value traded increased by Rs3.22 billion to Rs12.95 billion. Overall market capitalisation decreased by Rs87.85 billion.

Among scrips, TRG topped the volumes for the third day in a row with 26.52 million shares, followed by WTL (24.68 million) and TPLP (24.08 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include TRG, WTL, TPLP, TELE, and BYCO, which formed around 34 percent of total volumes.

The sectors taking the index towards south were commercial banks with 159 points, fertilizer with 124 points, cement with 118 points, pharmaceuticals with 49 points, and oil & gas marketing companies with 33 points. The most points taken off the index were by LUCK which stripped the index of 76 points followed by ENGRO with 66 points, HBL with 55 points, FFC with 52 points, and MCB with 41 points.

The sectors taking the index toward north were technology & communication with 43 points and closed-end mutual fund with two points. The most points added to the index were by SYS which contributed 34 points followed by UBL with 26 points, TRG with 20 points, MARI with 18 points, and KAPCO with 9 points.