RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Tuesday remained under pressure due to selling in various sectors.

BRIndex100 lost 17.73 points or 0.38 percent to close at 4,709.45 points. BRIndex100 touched intraday high of 4,754.74 and intraday low of 4,705.62 points. Volumes stood at 145.255 million shares.

BRIndex30 decreased by 86.89 points or 0.35 percent to 24,500.07 points with a turnover of 97.355 million shares.

The benchmark KSE-100 index declined by 123.98 points to 43,705.10 points. Due to selling pressure trading activity improved as daily volumes increased to 177.594 million shares as compared to 137.042 million shares traded Monday.

Foreign investors remained net sellers of shares worth $0.3 million. The market capitalization decreased by Rs 14 billion to Rs 9.135 trillion.

Fauji Cement was the volume leader with 12.148 million shares. It gained Re 0.39 to close at Rs 28.96 followed by Unity Foods that increased by Rs 1.31to close at Rs 27.58 with 10.092 million shares.

Unilever Foods and Bata Pak were the top gainers with Rs 200.00 and Rs 126.00, respectively to close at Rs 9,300.00 and Rs 2,910.00. Bhanero Textile and United Brands were the top losers with Rs 42.60 and Rs 25.15, respectively to close at Rs 810.00 and Rs 482.63.

BR Commercial Banks Index decreased by 62.86 points or 0.71 percent to close at 8,768.73 points with 9.644 million shares.

BR Cement Index gained 27.74 points or 0.46 percent to close at 6,025.23 points with 28.652 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index lost 7.73 points or 0.15 percent to close at 5,170.36 points with 11.224 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 1,221.65 points, down 4.72 points or 0.38 percent with 8.468 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index declined by 24.24 points or 0.38 percent to close at 6,393.74 points with 5.031 million shares.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said driving force behind early market upsurge was an increase in cement price/bag, which resulted in cement sector rally. Majority cement sector stocks traded close to upper circuit, however, selling pressure in the middle and end of the session eroded early gains. Besides cement sector, healthy activity was observed in gas utilities on the back of possible recovery of UFG losses from Consumers. Although, price gain got eroded in later trades due to possibility of stay order from Supreme Court which could negate any possible improvement for the Sui companies. Lackluster activity was observed in blue chip stocks such as E&P and Banks.

Scripts that contributed positively include DGKC (up 17 points), HCAR (up 12 points), BAFL (up 10 points), FCCL (up 6 points) and BATA (up 5 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include HBL (down 52 points), ENGRO (down 22 points), BAHL (down 12 points), KTML (down 12 points) and LUCK (down 10 points).