RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange remained under pressure due to selling by both local and foreign investors and the benchmark KSE-100 index declined by 554.81 points to close at 50,956.60 points on Thursday.

The market opened on a positive note and the index hit 51,570.29 points, however failed to continue this momentum due to selling pressure and the index dropped into negative zone at 50,871.76 points intra-day low level.

The foreign investors remained net sellers of shares worth $6.9 million. Trading activities also remained low as daily trading volumes decreased to 302.127 million shares as compared to 371.801 million shares traded on Wednesday. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 57 billion to Rs 10.104 trillion. Out of total 410 active scrips, 210 closed in negative and 182 in positive while the value of 18 stocks remained unchanged.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 32.463 million shares and gained Re 0.18 to close at Rs 3.38 followed by Engro Polymer that increased by Re 0.29 to close at Rs 31.10 with 15.117 million shares. Silk Bank inched up by Re 0.12 to close at Rs 1.87 with 14.197 million shares.

Nestle Pakistan and ICI Pakistan were the top gainers increasing by Rs 350.00 and Rs 52.31 respectively to close at Rs 10,000.00 and Rs 1163.31 while Sapphire Fiber and Unilever Foods were the top losers declining by Rs 61.68 and Rs 38.00 respectively to close at Rs 1265.00 and Rs 6162.00.

Arhum Ghous at JS Global Capital said the market opened on a positive note where the index made an intraday high of 59 points. This positivity was short lived as heavy selling was witnessed across the board. The index made an intraday low of negative 636, while it closed around 50,956 level, down 555 points. The major laggards of index were UBL (down 3.10 percent), HUBC (down 3.73 percent), MCB (down 2.21 percent), ENGRO (down 2.07 percent) and PPL (down 2.50 percent) as they cumulatively contributed negative 281 points to the index. Banking sector lead the decline in the market as index heavy-weights MCB, UBL and HBL cumulatively contributed negative 159 points to the index. E&P sector closed 1.34 percent down from its previous day close as oil prices edged lower on the back of market weighing rising US shale production against ongoing efforts by major producers to cut output to reduce a global glut. OGDC (down 0.84 percent), POL (down 1.69 percent) and PPL were the major laggards of the aforementioned sector. Profit taking to some extent was witnessed in the Cement sector as sector heavy weights MLCF (down 2.39 percent), LUCK (down 1.56 percent) and DGKC (down 1.02 percent), all closed in the red zone.