RECORDER REPORT
KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Monday remained under selling pressure. The benchmark KSE-100 index fell by 411.71 points to close at 46,465.66 points.
Trading activity remained low as daily volumes on the ready counter decreased to 241.027 million shares as compared to 346.236 million shares traded Friday. Foreign investors however emerged net buyers of equities worth $0.8 million.
The market capitalization declined by Rs 75 billion to Rs 9.631 trillion. Out of total 394 active scrips, 281 closed in negative, 100 in positive while the value of 13 stocks remained unchanged.
Bank of Punjab was the volume leader with 17.026 million shares. However, it lost Rs 0.58 to close at Rs 11.31 followed by K-Electric that gained Rs 0.05 to close at Rs 7.30 with 14.819 million shares. Summit Bank declined by Re 1 to close at Rs 4.36 with 14.813 million shares.
Sanofi-Aventis and Sapphire Textile were the top gainers with Rs 97.92 and Rs 84.92, respectively to close at Rs 2,056.34 and Rs 1,974.90. Wyeth Pak and Bata Pak were the top losers with Rs 84.77 and Rs 50.00, respectively to close at Rs 2,336.90 and Rs 3,150.00.
Maaz Mulla at JS Global Capital said the market witnessed selling pressure as the KSE-100 index lost 412 points to close at 46,466 level. Decline in stock prices is plausibly a result of jitters felt from the political impact of recently ousted PM’s rally. EPCL (down 2.08 percent) declared its financial results for first half of 2017, an EPS of Rs1.58 was announced that stood below investors’ expectations for the quarter. Major laggards were LUCK (down 1.96 percent), HUBC (down 1.58 percent) and ISL (down 4.81 percent) as they cumulatively wiped away 87 points to the index. On a sector wise level, Commercial Banks dragged down the market by 51 points, with UBL (down 1.16 percent), NBP (down 0.54 percent) and MCB (down 0.73 percent) were among the major losers from the sector. Owing to lower global oil prices, OGDC (down 1.10 percent), POL (down 1.45 percent) and PPL (down 0.63 percent) from the E&P sector also ended in the red zone, while PSO (up 0.84 percent) from OMCs gained on account of positive investors’ expectations for its financial result.
