The KSE-100 Index shed 491.81 points and closed the session at 32,314.57 on Monday after starting the day with huge losses.
The share prices tumbled at Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) in the early trading as index was down by 675.30 points during the first 19 minutes. However, the market was able to thwart further slide and somehow managed to reduce the losses.
By the time the session ended, the shares of only 88 companies made gains and 179 went down with 35 remained unchanged.
It means the KSE-100 Index is down by 20.67 percent since Jan 1 – a period during which it had slide to 27,228.80 on March 25.
The Monday’s poor start comes after the stock market closed at 32,806.38 after losing 44.45 points on Friday.
In fact, the overall trend has been negative after reaching the level of 39,382.11 on March 5. However, the market witnessed a recovery of 5,577.58 since March 26 till Friday last week.
During early trading, all the important sectors – including oil and gas, cement, engineering and fertilizers – suffered huge losses. And it set the tone for the rest of the day.
If we have a look at some important sectors, the cement companies faced the brunt with the Lucky Cement’s shares down by Rs13.43 and that of Kohat Cement by Rs9.82.
Same was the case with the banking sector barring a few which recorded negligible gains. However, the margin of losses in share values wasn’t that huge, as the shares value of top two losers United Bank and Meezan Bank Rs3.15 and Rs1.65 percent respectively.
On the other hand, the companies in fertilizers as oil and gas sectors too witnessed reduction in their share values.
On Monday, global markets made gains as governments around the world discussed when and how to reopen businesses and get their economies back on track.
European stocks opened about 2 percent higher after a broadly positive day in Asia. Futures markets were predicting Wall Street would open higher as well.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 rose by 2.7 percent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng by 2 percent, Shanghai Composite by 0.3 percent, South Korea’s Kospi by 1.8 percent and Taiex in Taiwan by 2.1 percent.
In London, the FTSE 100 was up 1.7 percent in early trading. Germany’s DAX was up 2.2 percent, while the CAC 40 in France traded 2 percent higher.