Investors suffered huge losses as the KSE-100 Index tumbled by 426.82 points and closed at 42,906.94 after experiencing a nosedive in the afternoon session of Tuesday.
With the market volume of 561,850,093 shares having a market capitalisation of Rs22.56 billion, the investors faced a total loss of over Rs60 billion as the share prices slid at an alarming rate.
The 0.98 percent cut in index also meant that it fell below the psychological barrier of 43,000 which was earlier crossed on December 14. But the market is moving downward since December 17 when the KSE-100 Index had reached 43,766.69.
Earlier, the Pakistan Stock Exchange had been able to maintain an upward trajectory after attaining the level of 39,632.52 on November 23 – representing an impressive overall gain of over 4,000 points till December 17.
On Tuesday, the index at one point had dipped to 42,757.49 before the market managed to stem the tide and reduce the losses somewhat.
A total of 381 companies were available for trading out of which the share prices of 259 was down and up in the case of 104 with no change recorded in the value of 18.
Sectors like automobile, cement, chemical, investment banks, food and personal care products, refineries and commercial banking were among the worst performers.
The trend can be gauged by the fact that seven out of the 10 most active stocks saw their share prices reduced with Wateen Telecom, Invest Capital Investment Bank and TRG Pakistan being the top three on the list. The number of shares traded for these companies were 70,792,000, 30,805,500 and 23,636,000 respectively.
However, the biggest cut in share price was experienced by First Credit and Investment Bank with its value shrinking by 13.07 percent followed by Pervez Ahmed Consultancy Services 12.93 percent and First Fidelity Leasing Modaraba 11.14 percent.
As far as the top advancers are concerned, the share price of Colony Textile Mills was up by 23.98 percent, Trust Modaraba by 15.19 percent and First Al-Noor Modaraba by 14.55 percent.