Selling pressure persisted at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), with the benchmark KSE-100 Index losing nearly 1,300 points to settle below 112,000 level on Monday.
At close, the KSE-100 Index settled at 111,986.88, a decrease of 1,264.78 points or 1.12%.
Selling was witnessed across key sectors including automobile assemblers, cement, chemical, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs and refinery.
Key stocks contributing to the downturn included ENGROH, UBL, MCB, MTL, and PPL, which together accounted for a drop of 731 points in the index, brokerage house Topline Securities said.
“The negative sentiment was driven by the lack of a positive trigger, in addition to ENGROH earnings falling short of expectations, which contributed 424 points to the decline. The shorter trading hours also put pressure on the market,” Topline said.
Talking to Business Recorder earlier, Sana Tawfik, Head of Research at Arif Habib Limited (AHL) attributed the decline to across-the-board selling.
“Moreover, the Ramadan factor has come into play, which is leading to thin trading volume. This trend is expected to persist in the coming days as well,” she added.
As per data provided by AHL, over the last 10 years, the average market return during Ramadan has been 0.9%. “However, last year, returns surged to 6.9% during the month,” noted the brokerage house.
During the previous week, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) remained in the green zone driven by improved local liquidity and positive investor sentiment.
The KSE-100 gained 451 points, or 0.4%, on a week-on-week basis, closing at 113,251.67 points compared to 112,801 points in the previous week.
Globally, Asian share markets dithered on Monday as the threat of imminent tariffs lurked in the background, while bitcoin surged on news it would be included in a new US strategic reserve of cryptocurrencies.
US President Donald Trump on social media announced five digital assets he expected to include in a new reserve, including bitcoin, ether, XRP, Solana and Cardano.
Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market value, shot up more than 11% to $94,110, while ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency, climbed 14% to $2,528.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was flat, though Japan’s Nikkei rose 1.1%, helped by a softer yen.
S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures were both up 0.1%, having staged a late rally on Friday after a week of heavy losses.
Geopolitical uncertainty lingered as European leaders agreed to draw up a Ukraine peace plan to take to the United States, following President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s clash with Trump in the Oval Office.
Volume on the all-share index decreased to 208.88 million from 472.08 million recorded in the previous close.
The value of shares declined to Rs11.78 billion from Rs22.78 billion in the previous session.
National BankXD was the volume leader with 23.80 million shares, followed by WorldCall Telecom with 17.59 million shares, and Pak Int.Bulk with 11.71 million shares.
Shares of 438 companies were traded on Monday, of which 86 registered an increase, 287 recorded a fall, while 65 remained unchanged.
