Learn · Track 6: Indicators and patterns · lesson 4 of 4 · Intermediate
Why a PSX share price drops on the ex-dividend date
A PSX price falls by about the dividend on the ex-date. Bonus and rights issues make bigger false gaps. See adjusted vs unadjusted on a real chart.
A PSX share price drops on the ex-dividend date (ex-dividend par price kyun girti hai) because the cash dividend stops travelling with the share: a buyer from that day does not receive it, so the price falls by roughly the dividend. OGDC closed at Rs 315.91 on 7 October 2026 and at Rs 308.66 on 8 October 2026, its ex-date for a Rs 6 dividend, a fall of Rs 7.25 or 2.30%. A bonus issue makes a much bigger false gap: Shaheen Insurance (SHNI) fell 22.17% on its ex-bonus day, 7 April 2026, in the exchange’s own prices, yet an adjusted chart shows a rise of 1.17%. SuperX Charts adjusts for bonus shares, rights and splits, not for cash dividends.
Why does a share price drop on the ex-dividend date?
Until the ex-date, a share comes with a claim on the declared dividend. From the ex-date, the claim stays with the seller. The same share is worth less by about the cash that has been separated from it. The company has not lost anything; the cash has moved from inside the share to a payment due to whoever held it at book closure. The three dates behind this, and why PSX’s T+1 settlement fixes the buy-by date a day earlier than you might expect, are in ex-date vs book closure vs record date on PSX.
A real case: OGDC (Oil & Gas Development Company) announced on 8 September 2026 a cash dividend of 60% of its Rs 10 face value, which is Rs 6 a share. Book closure ran from 9 October to 16 October 2026. SuperX’s dividend record, as of 9 October 2026, lists the ex-date as 8 October 2026 and the buy-by date as 7 October 2026. It also flags the ex-date as derived from the closure start rather than confirmed in a PSX notice, so check the notice on psx.com.pk if the exact day matters to you. What the chart held on 18 October 2026:
| Date | What happened | OGDC close |
|---|---|---|
| Wednesday 7 October 2026 | Buy-by date; last day to buy and be paid | Rs 315.91 |
| Thursday 8 October 2026 | Ex-date; trades without the Rs 6 | Rs 308.66 |
| Friday 9 October 2026 | Book closure starts | Rs 306.12 |
The fall on the ex-date was Rs 7.25, or 2.30%. The Rs 6 dividend is 1.90% of the 7 October close. The other Rs 1.25 (0.40% of the 7 October close) is ordinary movement, and this post does not give it a cause. For scale, the KSE-100 closed at 168,580.40 on 7 October and 167,441.90 on 8 October 2026, a fall of 0.68%. The drop is not a loss: a holder on 7 October owned a share and a Rs 6 claim, and on 8 October owns a cheaper share and the same claim. The Rs 6 is gross; tax comes off the payout (withholding tax on dividends).
Open the chart to see it: OGDC on daily bars, one year. A D mark sits on 8 October, and the event reads “Ex-dividend Rs 6”. Adjusted and unadjusted series show the same fall on that day, because cash dividends are not adjusted. The OGDC share page states the latest close with its date: Rs 299.10 on 16 October 2026.
How do bonus and rights issues make false gaps?
A bonus issue creates new shares and gives them to existing holders, so the same company is divided into more pieces and each piece is worth less. The price falls by the ratio, not by a dividend. A 30% bonus means 3 new shares for every 10 held, so the price divides by 1.3. That is a fall of 23.1% before any market move, and it destroys no value.
SHNI is a clean example. It declared a 30% bonus issue with an ex-date of 7 April 2026, a date that SuperX’s record marks as confirmed. In the exchange’s own prices the close went from Rs 9.02 on 6 April 2026 to Rs 7.02 on 7 April 2026: down 22.17%. On a chart that does not adjust, that looks like a crash. It was not. For the mechanics of the bonus itself, with a Rs 120 to Rs 100 example, read bonus shares on PSX: why the price drops, not the value.
A rights issue also changes the price on the ex-date, because it offers new shares to existing holders at a stated price. How a chart adjusts for it depends on the terms of that issue. The terminal’s guide says rights are adjusted, and its unexplained steps list gives, for each action, the ex-date, kind, factor and record. What to do with the right itself is covered in right shares on PSX: subscribe, sell or lapse.
A split behaves like a bonus: more pieces, a lower price per piece, no change in what the holder owns.
What does an adjusted price series do?
An adjusted series rewrites the history before an ex-date so that the ex-date shows no gap. The method is factor-based back-adjustment. Each corporate action has a factor, for a bonus 1 plus the bonus rate (1.3 for a 30% bonus), and every bar before the ex-date has its price divided by that factor. Bars from the ex-date onward are left alone. In the data read for this post, volume before the ex-date is multiplied by the factor too, so that volume and price stay consistent.
Here is SHNI in both modes, as the chart held them on 18 October 2026:
| Date | Unadjusted close | Adjusted close | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thursday 2 April 2026 | Rs 9.22 | Rs 7.0923 | 1.3 |
| Friday 3 April 2026 | Rs 9.03 | Rs 6.9462 | 1.3 |
| Monday 6 April 2026 | Rs 9.02 | Rs 6.9385 | 1.3 |
| Tuesday 7 April 2026 (ex-date) | Rs 7.02 | Rs 7.02 | 1.0 |
| Wednesday 8 April 2026 | Rs 7.54 | Rs 7.54 | 1.0 |
On the unadjusted series the one-day change on 7 April is 7.02 ÷ 9.02 − 1 = −22.17%. On the adjusted series it is 7.02 ÷ 6.9385 − 1 = +1.17%. The adjusted change is the actual movement of the share on that day, once the extra shares are counted. The unadjusted change is the same movement plus the effect of dividing the company into more pieces.
Adjustments stack. SHNI had an earlier bonus of 25% with an ex-date of 18 April 2025. In the data read on 18 October 2026, every bar before 18 April 2025 carries a ratio of 1.625 (1.25 × 1.3), and bars from 18 April 2025 to 6 April 2026 carry 1.3. Volume in the adjusted series is scaled the same way: on 17 October 2025 it read 7,227 shares adjusted and 5,559 in the exchange’s record. The adjusted-volume figure is an observation from the chart’s data; the guide does not describe it.
Why it matters: a return or a moving average computed over an unadjusted series that spans a bonus date contains a fall that never happened. Use adjusted history for studies over time, and unadjusted history to match the price printed on a given day, such as a contract note.
How do I switch between adjusted and unadjusted prices on SuperX Charts?
SuperX Charts opens adjusted. The terminal’s guide, in its page on the PSX’s facts and the adjusted prices, describes the switch:
- Open a company with a bonus, right or split in its past, for example SHNI on daily bars, two years, adjusted. No gap shows at 7 April 2026.
- Find the note about corporate actions under the chart. It says that daily prices are adjusted for bonus shares, rights and splits and not for cash dividends.
- Click Unadjusted to see the prices as the exchange printed them. The chart now shows the 22.17% fall. Open the same view unadjusted with the link key
adj=none. - Click Adjusted to go back.
- Click the words “unexplained steps” in the note to see each factor with its ex-date, kind and record.
On a phone, the switch is in Pro’s Settings, under Prices. A link without adj=none always opens adjusted, so a shared unadjusted link shows the receiver what you see.
The events are marked in both modes: a D is an ex-dividend date, and a B is a book closure, bonus shares, rights or a split. The site also has a chart page for SHNI and a stock page, and the SHNI share page states its latest close with a date. To look for D marks on other dividend payers, open HBL or MEBL.
Does SuperX Charts adjust for cash dividends?
No. SuperX Charts leaves cash-dividend drops in the series, so an ex-dividend date shows the fall the exchange printed, with a D beside it. The terminal’s guide states it plainly: daily prices are adjusted for bonus shares, rights and splits, and not for cash dividends. For a view of what a holder earned including dividends, the catalogue has an indicator named Total return (dividends reinvested) that draws that over the chart and leaves the price series as it was printed.
Some other charting tools offer a setting to adjust for cash dividends. TradingView’s support page describes “Adjust data for dividends”: an adjusted chart there adds the dividend paid into the price series to show total return (TradingView support, checked 18 October 2026). How that setting treats PSX symbols was not checked for this post. If you compare tools, be sure each one’s series is set the same way before you compare a return.
The site’s dividend calendar lists upcoming ex-dates, and the OGDC dividend history lists the payouts behind the example above.
What can an adjusted series not tell you?
An adjusted series is only as good as the record of corporate actions behind it. SuperX Charts’ capability notes, dated 17 September 2026, say that 34 symbols had adjusted history at that date. They add that 484 steps of 30% or more since 2016 remain unexplained by a held notice or bonus row, real falls included, and are left to an audit. Those figures were current on that date and may have changed since.
To keep the chart honest, the terminal does not guess. A session that moved beyond the exchange’s price limit with no corporate action on record gets a ? on the date axis, is listed as unconfirmed, and its bars stay as recorded. Treat a ? as a prompt to check the company’s notices on PSX, not as proof of a real fall or a missed adjustment. The limits are explained in circuit breakers and upper and lower locks.
Frequently asked questions
Why does the share price fall on the ex-dividend date on PSX?
From the ex-date a buyer no longer receives the declared dividend, so the price falls by about the dividend per share. For OGDC’s Rs 6 dividend, the close fell Rs 7.25 (2.30%) on 8 October 2026, which includes ordinary market movement.
Is the ex-dividend drop a loss?
No. A holder on the buy-by date owns the share and a claim to the dividend. After the ex-date the holder owns a cheaper share and the same claim. Tax is deducted from the payout, which is separate from the price move.
Why did a PSX stock fall 20% or more in one day with no bad news?
It may be a bonus issue or a split. A 30% bonus divides the price by 1.3, a fall of 23.1% before any market move. SHNI fell 22.17% on its 7 April 2026 ex-date in the exchange’s own prices and rose 1.17% on the adjusted series.
What is an adjusted price on a PSX chart?
An adjusted price is an older price divided by the factor of every later bonus, right or split, so the chart shows no gap at the ex-date. SuperX Charts adjusts daily prices this way by default, and does not adjust for cash dividends.
How do I see the exchange’s own prices on SuperX Charts?
Click Unadjusted in the corporate-actions note under the chart, or open a link that carries adj=none. On a phone, use Pro’s Settings, under Prices.
Education, not investment advice.
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