Zubair Yaqoob
Karachi
Market shed 377pts again during the session and closed -309pts. Political uncertainty amid emergency lockdown in different parts of the country caused investors to rethink decisions. In addition, rupee parity also dropped to 166.35 that showed US$ as a preferred store of value for investors as against equities. Vanaspati sector continued leading the volumes on the bourse, which is primarily driven by UNITY. A total of 23.9M shares of UNITY traded today. Technology sector followed Vanaspati in terms of traded volumes with 22.9M shares, trailed by Banks (22.2M). Among scrips, MDTL and BOP followed UNITY with 9.9M and 8.3M shares respectively. The Index closed at 33,539pts as against 33,848pts showing a decline of 309pts (-0.9% DoD). Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (-86pts), Fertilizer (-59pts), Power (-49pts), E&P (-36pts) and OMC’s (-24pts). Volumes dropped from 340.8mn shares to 216.2mn shares (-37% DoD). Average traded value also declined by 36% to reach US$ 38.9mn as against US$ 61mn. Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include UNITY, MDTL, BOP, JSCL and HASCOL, which formed 26% of total volumes. Stocks that contributed positively to the index include DAWH (+18pts), HBL (+14pts), AGP (+6pts), GLAXO (+5pts) and FML (+3pts).
