BRIndex100 sheds more weight

RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: A bearish trend continued on Pakistan Stock Exchange Wednesday due to selling from local and foreign investors in almost all sectors.

BRIndex100 decreased by 52.95 points or 1.13 percent to close at 4,635.00 points. BRIndex100 hit intraday high of 4,701.41 points and intraday low of 4,626.82 points. Volumes stood at 231.912 million shares.

BRIndex30 declined by 366.11 points or 1.64 percent to close at 22,021.27 points with total daily turnover of 142.710 million shares.

The KSE-100 Index plunged by 293.34 points or 0.66 percent and closed at 44,373.23 points. Trading activity remained thin as total daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 252.760 million shares as compared to 334.689 million shares traded Tuesday.

Foreign investors also remained net sellers of equities worth $3.640 million. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 52 billion to Rs 7.752 trillion. Out of total 554 active scrips, 423 closed in negative and 109 in positive while the value of 22 stocks remained unchanged.

Unity Foods was the volume leader with 25.715 million shares and gained Rs 0.08 to close at Rs 31.88 followed by Telecard Limited that closed at Rs 18.60, down Rs 1.35 to close at Rs 18.60 with 20.151 million shares. Mari Petroleum and Gatron Industries were the top gainers increasing by Rs 68.61 and Rs 32.62 respectively to close at Rs 1749.97 and Rs 467.62 while Rafhan Maize and Wyeth Pak were the top losers declining by Rs 100.00 and Rs 48.37 respectively to close at Rs 10800.00 and Rs 1486.63.

BR Automobile Assembler Index declined by 106.45 points or 1.22 percent to close at 8,597.30 points with total turnover of 1.353 million shares.

BR Cement Index plunged by 147.44 points or 2.62 percent to close at 5,477.88 points with 21.283 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index decreased by 40.16 points or 0.43 percent to close at 9,289.10 points with 21.387 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index lost 21.4 points or 0.39 percent to close at 5,484.50 points with 4.973 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index gained 7.16 points or 0.19 percent to close at 3,744.35 points with 11.958 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 4,666.15 points, down 24.49 points or 0.52 percent with 58.903 million shares. An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that selling pressure continued unabated at the bourse, courtesy of foreign investors. Eye watering commodity prices, especially Coal, have had their bearing on Cement and Steel sector stocks and had ripple effects on O&GMCs, E&P sectors due to concerns over potential increase in circular debt emanating from rising energy costs.

A key conditionality from IMF for resumption of program has been upward revision in electricity tariff, besides an end to subsidies and increase in tax revenues. These measures in part or whole are expected to dent earnings growth of the corporate sector in the coming quarters, which is reflecting on stock prices as well. Ripple effects of selling in cyclical as well as oil and gas chain are observed in overall market with significant selling pressure in TRG among tech sector stocks.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Cement (down 91 points), Textile (down 36 points), Banks (down 35 points), Technology (down 30 points), Fertilizer (down 24 points) and E&P (up 36 points).

Stocks that contributed positively to the index include MARI (up 43 points), UBL (up 22 points), MTL (up 8 points), COLG (up 5 points) and NATF (up 4 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include HBL (down 28 points), CHCC (down 24 points), KTML (down 20 points), LUCK (down 19 points) and ENGRO (down 16 points).