Zubair Yaqoob
Karachi
Market opened on a negative on Monday at -198pts and 1.6M shares traded at the opening bell. In few minutes, the benchmark index hit -450pts and gradually picked pace to realize a loss of 675pts during the entire session. Cement sector largely took the bantering, mainly due to concerns over recent increase in price / bag. Resultantly, KOHC hit lower circuit breaker and maintained that level till close of session. International crude oil prices also slid by 8.5% that kept pressure on E&P stocks. Overall trading volumes also remained low comparatively. Cement sector led the volumes with 41.5M shares, followed by O&GMCs (10.5M) and Banks (9.3M). Among scrips, MLCF realized 17.3M shares, followed by HASCOL (7.4M) and DGKC (7M). The Index closed at 32,315pts as against 32,806pts showing a decline of 492pts (-.5% DoD). Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P (-89pts), Cement (-85pts), Banks (-84pts), Power (-59pts) and O&GMCs (-38pts). Volumes declined from increased from 120.2mn shares to 122.2mn shares (+2% DoD). Average traded value increased by 8% to reach US$ 33.mn as against US$ 30.6mn.
