Another bloodbath at Pakistan Stock Exchange

Share prices at Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) fell like nine pins on Tuesday, taking the index down by over 2,500 points as the much-needed correction which saw the stocks losing over 8,000 points in a few days after the non-stop rally took the index to over 67,000 mark, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

Selling pressure cleared the way for the bears to storm the trading with the benchmark KSE-100 index plummeting by 2,535 points to 59,170.

Across-the-board selling was witnessed as index-heavy sectors including automobile assemblers, cement, chemical, commercial banks, oil and gas marketing companies, oil and gas exploration companies, refineries and pharmaceutical traded in the red.

At the close on the last trading day on Friday, volatility had persisted at the bourse amid some rise in political uncertainty as the benchmark KSE-100 Index lost nearly 1,000 points to settle at 61,705.

Experts say the selling pressure comes on account of correction after the Pakistani market showed impressive growth in recent weeks, pushing the index to record high levels of over 67,000.

Despite the recent losses, Pakistan equities had performed exceptionally well and provided hefty gains of 53% outperforming other major asset classes during calendar year 2023.

Investment in US dollar, Naya Pakistan US$ Certificate under Roshan Digital Account (RDA), gold, and T-bills also remained attractive investment avenues for local investors, experts said.

In a key development, the Sindh High Court (SHC) had suspended the SRO 1588(I)/2023 of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) which has imposed a 40% additional tax on windfall income of banks.

Reporter Baseem Iftikhar