Blue chips lead decline on KSE: BRIndex100 sheds 42.54 points

Pakistan Stock Exchange Monday witnessed a bearish trend following selling in various sectors with extremely low volumes. BRIndex100 lost 42.54 points or 1.27 percent to close at 3,317.19 points. BRIndex100 touched intraday high of 3,361.03 and intraday low of 3,313.35 points. Volumes stood at 43.195 million shares. BRIndex30 decreased by 264.54 points or 1.53 percent to close at 16,994.12 points with a turnover of 32.521 million shares.
The KSE-100 index declined by 369.04 points or 1.15 percent to close below 32,000 crucial level at 31,734.23 points. Trading activity remained low as daily volumes on the ready counter decreased to 45.785 million shares as compared to 86.567 million shares traded Friday last. Foreign investors remained net sellers of shares worth $0.7 million. The market capitalization declined by Rs 59 billion to Rs 6.405 trillion. Out of total 326 active scrips, 240 closed in negative, only 72 positive while the value of 14 stocks remained unchanged.
K-Electric was the volume leader with 6.262 million shares. However, it lost Re 0.15 to close at Rs 3.32 followed by Maple Leaf that decreased by Re 0.95 to close at Rs 17.02 with 3.678 million shares. Pak Engineering and Indus Motor Co were the top gainers with Rs 7.73 and Rs 5.01, respectively to close at Rs 162.47 and Rs 1,147.73. Wyeth Pak and Sanofi-Aventis were the top losers with Rs 34.10 and Rs 25.00, respectively to close at Rs 648.00 and Rs 499.00. BR Automobile Assembler Index declined by 60.2 points or 1.15 percent to close at 5,175.64 points with total turnover of 367,340 shares.
BR Cement Index plunged by 68.22 points or 2.46 percent to close at 2,708.83 points with 7.480 million shares. BR Commercial Banks Index decreased by 63.24 points or 0.8 percent to close at 7,829.56 points with 4.777 million shares. BR Power Generation and Distribution Index fell by 92.17 points or 2.07 percent to close at 4,353.00 points with 7.330 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index closed at 3,666.03 points, down 40.11 points or 1.08 percent with 3.262 million shares. BR Tech. & Comm. Index lost 11.32 points or 1.7 percent to close at 655.42 points with 4.458 million shares.
Maaz Mulla at JS Global Capital said that the plague firmly set upon the market fortunes showed no signs of relenting on Monday. The KSE-100 index started off on a positive note, touching a high of plus 19 points, however later took a sharp U-turn touching an intra-day low of minus 386 points.
Major laggards of the day were HUBC (down 2.6 percent), UBL (down 1.7 percent), ENGRO (down 1.5 percent), BAFL (down 3.0 percent) and PPL (down 1.2 percent) contributing 1.4 million shares.
Selling pressure was witnessed in the cement sector, where MLCF (down 5.3 percent), PIOC (down 5.2 percent), KOHC (down 3.8 percent) and DGKC (down 4.8 percent) were the major losers of the mentioned sector. However, LUCK (down 1.4 percent) from the cement sector declared its FY19 result, where the company posted an EPS of Rs 32.44 and a cash payout of Rs 6.50/share. NRL (down 5.0 percent) from the refinery sector declared its result for FY19. The company declared a loss of Rs 108.70/share during the period. From the E&P sector POL (up 0.3 percent) declared its FY19 result, posting an EPS of Rs 59.44/share and a cash payout of Rs 30/share.