RECORDER REPORT
KARACHI: A bearish trend continued on Pakistan Stock Exchange due to selling by local and foreign investors in various scrips.
BRIndex100 lost 40.43 points or 0.85 percent to close at 4,695.88 points Tuesday. BRIndes100 touched intraday high of 4,738.18 and intraday low of 4,681.79 points. Volume stood at 120.117 million shares.
BRIndex30 decreased by 256.1 points or 1.07 percent to close at 23,610.05 points with a turnover of 76.380 million shares.
The benchmark KSE-100 index declined by 311.56 points or 0.70 percent to close at 44,066.96 points. Daily trading volumes however increased to 153.514 million shares as compared to 130.508 million shares traded Monday.
Foreign investors remained net sellers of shares worth $0.4 million. The market capitalization declined by Rs 50 billion to Rs 9.096 trillion. Out of total 364 active scrips, 259 closed in negative, only 86 in positive while the value of 19 stocks remained unchanged.
Bank of Punjab was the volume leader with 11.159 million shares. However, it lost Re 0.19 to close at Rs 11.75 followed by Engro Polymer that gained Re 0.49 to close at Rs 36.73 with 8.183 million shares. Unilever Foods and Rafhan Maize were the top gainers with Rs 325.49 and Rs 197.50, respectively to close at Rs 8,499.99 and Rs 8,100.00. Sapphire Textile and Hinopak Motor were the top losers with Rs 65.56 and Rs 26.32, respectively to close at Rs 1,705.47 and Rs 1,092.93.
BR Commercial Banks Index plunged by 100.87 points or 1.15 percent to close at 8,678.34 points with total turnover of 22.254 million shares.
BR Cement Index declined by 48.88 points or 0.87 percent to close at 5,572.42 points with 12.583 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index lost 4.77 points or 0.09 percent to close at 5,511.85 points with 11.739 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 1,166.77 points, down 11.72 points or 0.99 percent with 7.545 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index decreased by 30.24 points or 0.46 percent to close at 6,589.24 points with 4.312 million shares.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market continues to show the dark side with unrestricted selling in banks. The market slipped below 44,000 and traded for quite some time before managing to close above 44,000 level. Selling was mainly witnessed in Banks, Fertilizer, O&GMCs, and Cement sectors. Foreign selling has so far caused a major dent in the sentiment and lack of breathing space at Institutional level in terms of buying capacity has aggravated the situation. Only few notable’s buy side activity from Insurance Sector has kept the hope alive for near time recovery but in the absence of 2 formidable players namely Foreigners and HNIs, it seems a distant possibility now.
Sectors contributing to the decline include Banks (down 123 points), Fertilizer (down 54points), O&GMCs (down 42 points), Cement (down 34 points) and Autos (down 16 points).
Scripts that contributed positively include MARI (up 20 points), POL (up 7 points), JLICL (up 6 points), NATF (up 4 points) and ISL (up 3 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include MCB (down 39 points), FFC (down 31 points), SNGP (down 22 points), HBL (down 22 points) and ENGRO (down 17 points).
