Bloodbath at PSX as Market Loses 1300 Points in First Few Hours

The capital market nosedived by over 1300 points as a hike in interest rate and economic uncertainty drove investor sentiment, leading to panic selling. The KSE-100 plunged down by over 1,300 points in early intra-day trading, falling well below the 40,000 level early on Monday. The major reason behind the bloodbath was the State Bank of Pakistan’s decision to increase the interest rate by 1.5 percent for the next two months. It was much higher than market expectations. The KSE-100 index fell by 1,319 points (or 3.27%), touching an intraday low of 39,177 points in the early trading session. It is currently down by 1216 points, trading at 39,280 points with a turnover of 51.64 million shares. Cement, Fertilizer, Oil & Gas Exploration Companies, Automobile, and Commercial banks have emerged as the top net losers as of now. In the beginning, the Oil index was trading in green but couldn’t handle the panic selling as it also went down drastically. Among the index, heavyweights like HBL (-4.90%), ENGRO (-4.60%), FFC (-4.99%) and HUBC (-4.99%)  DGKC (-4.99%) were the biggest losers. More than 70 companies were down in the lower circuit breaker of the day. Besides, the shocking 1.5 percentage point increase in the benchmark interest rate and 3.8 percent depression in rupee against the US dollar on Friday also prompted investors to sell shares at throwaway prices. Top volume leaders of the market, as of now, are Bank of Punjab, K-Electric, United bank limited, World Call telecom and Fauji Cement.