Stocks depressed

Pakistan Stock Exchange Thursday remained under pressure due to selling mainly by local investors. The benchmark KSE-100 index declined by 204.48 points to 49,958.33 points. Daily trading volumes on the ready counter increased to 268.794 million shares as compared to 232.508 million shares traded Wednesday.
The market capitalization decreased by Rs 26 billion to Rs 9.933 trillion. Out of total 377 active scrips, 217 closed in negative, 146 in positive while the value of 14 stocks remained unchanged. Bank of Punjab (R) was the volume leader with 25.959 million shares. However it lost Rs 0.21 to close at Rs 1.00 followed by Power Cement (R) that decreased by Rs 0.33 to close at Rs 1.59 with 25.573 million shares. Dost Steels gained Rs 0.58 to close at Rs 14.76 with 22.475 million shares.
Nestle Pakistan and Unilever Foods were the top gainers with Rs 200.00 and Rs 50.00, respectively to close at Rs 10,200.00 and Rs 6,350.00. Sanofi-Aventis and Wyeth Pak were the top losers with Rs 86.00 and Rs 51.83, respectively to close at Rs 2,000.00 and Rs 2,284.50.
Arhum Ghous at JS Global Capital said that the market remained volatile in during the trading session, making an intraday high of plus 128, and intraday low of minus 287 points to close 204 points down at 49,958. Major contribution to the index came from SEARL (up 1.88 percent), HUBC (up 0.71 percent) and MCB (up 0.49 percent) as they cumulatively contributed plus 35 points to the index. On the flipside, major laggards were HBL (down 2.98 percent), DGKC (down 2.09 percent) and OGDC (down 1.03 percent) as they cumulatively contributed negative 152 points to the index. Commercial bank heavy weights have witnessed mixed investor sentiment with UBL (up 0.07 percent), MCB (up 0.49 percent) and NBP (up 1.02 percent) closing in the green while ABL (down 0.33 percent), HBL (down 2.98 percent) closing in red zone. OGDC (down 1.03 percent), POL (down 0.60 percent) and PPL (down 0.43 percent) lost value on account of 5 percent decrease in crude futures due to the unexpected rise in US inventories. The chemical sector performed well as opposed to the declining market, with EPCL (up 5 percent) and DOL (up 5 percent) closing at their respective upper circuits.
An analyst at Topline Securities said that the bourse witnessed another lackluster session; though trading was contained in a low volatility range (0.8 percent/415 points), the KSE-100 index closed towards the lower end, ultimately shedding 205 points and slipping below the 50,000 mark.