Zubair Yaqoob
Karachi
This was the second time during a week, when market halt triggered by 4% dip in KSE30 for 5 minutes around 2:13 PM, resulting in market halt of 45 minutes. The previous such session saw market declining by ~2300pts intra-day and on Thursday the halt came near ~-1400pts in the benchmark KSE100. Global rout in oil as well as financial markets has been the major reason behind lack of investor confidence.
Weakness in international crude prices tripped oil and gas chain, with both OGDC and PPL trading near lower circuits. Although, PSO managed to form a base near yesterday’s opening price of 155, but slipped below that level in final half hour after market reopened.
Selling activity, be it panic selling in Oil and Banks or profit booking in Cyclicals (Steel, Cement, Pharma), caused the index to close -1717pts (unadjusted) after sustaining a total loss of 1777pts during the session. Clearly, number 7 failed to be the lucky number here.
