KARACHI - Bloodbath activity was witnessed at Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) today as the benchmark shares index lost 861 points (down 1.67pc) to close at 50,591.57 points.
Major selling appeared in the market due to MSCI EM rebalancing flows. Banking sector continued its previous day trend where big banks such as MCB (slump 4.83pc), UBL (4.76pc) and HBL (4.75pc) lost value to close in the red zone. E&P sector lost value to close in the red zone as oil prices fell by 1 percent as rising production have led to concerns on OPEC-led output deal. OGDC (slip 4.35pc) and PPL (4.27pc) were the major laggards of the mentioned sector. Selling pressure was seen in Cement sector where sector heavy weights LUCK (dip 4.70pc) and MLCF (3.14pc) closed in the red trajectory, observed analyst Arhum Ghous.
Panic selling witnessed at PSX on post budget profit-taking and concerns for unexpected foreign outflows ahead of MSCI EM upgrade, said analyst Ahsan Mehanti. Late session interest in selected blue chip oil and banking stocks supported the index to close above session lows. Capital gains taxes flat slab levies, higher divided taxes and renewed concerns for rising circular debt in energy sector played a catalyst role in record fall at PSX, the analyst maintained.
Volumes improved to 411 million shares versus 235 million shares traded in the previous session. While traded value rose to Rs53 billion/$508 million. Oil & Gas Dev emerged volume leader with 27 million traded shares, followed by Engro Corp with 23 million traded shares and K-Electric with 21 million traded shares stood second and third. Scrips of total 382 active companies traded in the session, of which 109 finished in green, 248 in red while 25 remained unchanged.