Bloodbath at PSX as benchmark index loses 1,123 points

A bloodbath was observed at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Thursday after three flattish sessions in the week. The benchmark KSE-100 index lost 1,123 on Thursday to hit 38,785.

Around 287 traded scrips landed in the red, with K-Electric having lost over six per cent of its value and Worldcall Telecom, TRG, Japan Power and Bank of Punjab also losing over 5pc.

"The market opened lower and declined steadily, with sentiments mainly dented as cleric Tahirul Qadri hinted at a protest against the government over the Model Town incident issue while opposition parties PTI and PPP also pledged their support for the protest call," reported Elixir Securities.

"What started as a knee-jerk reaction to rise in political noise in early trading turned into a full-blown hammering across the board as the day progressed, with notable blue chips skidding lower and leading the declines and institutional sellers struggling to offload amid no serious buyers on the screen."

The turnover picked up to reach over Rs6.2 billion from Wednesday's abysmal figures, with over 163 million shares traded.

The power generation and distribution sector was dominating trading with 26.6m shares traded, while technology and commercial banking sectors followed with 22.5m and 21.0m shares traded respectively.

Volumes were led by:

1. K-Electric Ltd: 13.7m shares traded [-6.17pc]

2. WorldCall Telecom: 12.9m shares traded [-5.96pc]

3. Dewan Cement: 9.8m shares traded [+6.50pc]

4. B.O.Punjab: 9.8m shares traded [-7.65pc]

5. TRG Pak Ltd: 8.2m shares traded [-5.00pc]