KARACHI: Investor confidence in the economy was further shaken by a severe decline in the large-scale manufacturing (LSM) sector, even after a string of interest rate reductions. Consequently, the benchmark KSE 100 index fell below 114,000 on Thursday as equities prices continued to take a severe beating.
Topline Securities Ltd. stated that the lack of positive triggers and uncertainty about the new US government plan and its impact were the main causes of the index’s 659-point or 0.58 percent decline, which ended at 113,837.
With a combined loss of 392 points, Fauji Fertilizer, Pakistan Petroleum, PSO, Mari Petroleum, and Millat Tractors were major contributors to the negative trend.
A gloomy economic outlook and worries over poor LSM performance caused equities to close down, according to Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation, which reported a 3.98 percent negative growth in November and a 1.3 percent growth in 5MFY25.
He noted that stock investors were uneasy due to continued political noise, rupee volatility, and predictions of a cautious SBP policy rate drop this month.
The session started off well, according to Ali Najib, Head of Sales at Insight Securities, with the index rising 389 points to an intraday high of 114,885 points. However, after it was announced that talks between the top opposition leadership and the establishment would be initiated, market attitude changed. Investors became uneasy as a result of this event, fearing that the ruling coalition government and its programs would face difficulties.
Investors chose to be cautious in anticipation of a crucial ruling in the £190 million Al-Qadir Trust case, which is expected to be announced on Friday morning.
But day-over-day, the traded value fell 36.98 percent to Rs24.98 billion, while the trading volume fell 28.81 percent to 469.44 million shares.
WorldCall Telecom (103.70 million shares), Cnergyico PK (37.10 million shares), Dewan Farooque (19.33 million shares), Pakistan Refinery (17.62 million shares), and Fauji Foods (16.11 million shares) were among the stocks that made up a sizable portion of the traded volume.
Unilever Foods (Rs135.00), Supernet Techno (Rs37.00), Al-Abbas Sugar (Rs20.12), The Premier Sugar (Rs19.10), and Indus Motor Company (Rs15.81) were the shares that saw the biggest increases in share prices in absolute terms.
In absolute terms, Hoechst Pakistan (Rs116.75), Bata Pakistan (Rs37.82), Abbott Lab (Rs24.31), Premium Textile (Rs23.77), and Millat Tractors (Rs23.48) were the firms that saw the biggest drops in share prices.
