Stocks crash in panic selling as coronovirus haunt investors

KARACHI: Stocks on Monday plunged over 2,375 points in its biggest one-day point fall in history, tracking a crash in global equities as the coronavirus pandemic wreaked havoc on global oil and stocks markets.

‘The market opened in free fall as the index plummeted over 2,442 points in an intra-day trade, following a plummeting equity markets across the world amid deepening corona fears,” brokerage JS Global Capital Limited said in a post market note.

“The drastic fall pushed the index below the 33,620 level, triggering a halt in trade.” Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 shares index lost 6.59 percent or 2375.97 points to close at 33,684.91 points level. KSE-30 shares index followed suit with a low of 7.19 percent or 1,151.72 points to end at 14,864.92 points level. Of 346 active scrips, 18 up, 319 retreated, and 9 remained unchanged. The ready market volumes stood at 215.437 million shares, as compared with the turnover of 290.470 million shares in the previous session.

Dealers said only three out of KSE-100 stocks registered gains with low volumes while overall decline was across the board. “Investors are scared on the outbreak of Coronavirus locally and impact of sustained selling from foreign investors,” said Sateesh Balani, director research at Ismail Iqbal Securities said. “Market grapevine suggests that mutual funds were largely sellers due to redemptions from clients.”

The market since the opening was under tremendous pressure and within few minutes of trade index was down by over 600 points. And by 10.15 am the KSE-30 index was down 5 percent which turned into lock down of the index. Trading was stopped for 45 minutes.

Trading resumed around 11 a.m. and soon index suffered another colossal loss of more than 2,400 points, biggest decline in history of the exchange. The index since January 13 has suffered a loss of almost 22 percent.

Topline Securities said investors are preferring cash over equity amid growing concern of a slowdown in economic activity in the country due to increasing number of COVID-19 cases. Pressure in regional markets along with weak opening by European equities and as well as slum in oil prices amid bleak demand outlook weighed down on investor sentiment, as selling was observed across the board,” the brokerage said.

Arif Habib Limited in its report said the market did not take any positive cue from the upcoming monetary policy, to be announced on March 17, “whereby street anticipates a cut of 50-100bps”.

“Moreover fears of Corona virus spread have also caused significant damage to investor sentiment and generally investors were seen sidelined.” The top gainers were Island Textile, up Rs91.00 close at Rs1401.00/share, and Sapphire Fibre Rs47.40 to finish at Rs679.40/share.

Rafhan Maize down Rs213.75 to close at Rs6600.00/share, and Unilever Foods down Rs200.00 to close at Rs7100.00/share, were the main losers. Bank of Punjab recorded the highest volumes with a turnover of 44.377 million shares. Whereas the scrip lost Re1 end at Rs9.10/share. The lowest volumes were witnessed in D.G.K. Cement recording a turnover of 5.315 million shares, whereas the scrip lost Rs6.1 to end at Rs75.26/share.