PSX stays depressed: BRIndex100 edges down

Pakistan Stock Exchange Monday remained under pressure due to selling in various sectors.

BRIndex100 lost 54.33 points or 1.2 percent to close at 4,485.64 points. BRIndex100 touched intraday high of 4,551.48 and intraday low of 4,473.78 points. Volumes stood at 162.796 million shares.

BRIndex30 decreased by 335.68 points or 1.4 percent to close at 23,641.84 points with a turnover of 124.667 million shares.

The KSE-100 Index declined by 420.14 points or 0.97 percent to close at 42,747.62 points. Trading activity remained low as daily volumes on the ready counter decreased to 173.897 million shares as compared to 211.406 million shares traded last Friday.

The market capitalization declined by Rs 52 billion to stand at Rs 8.033 trillion. Out of total 353 active scrips, 267 closed in negative, only 70 in positive while the value of 16 stocks remained unchanged.

Engro Fertilizer was the volume leader with 15.269 million shares. However, it declined by Rs 4.13 billion to close at Rs 71.17 followed by TRG Pak that decreased by Rs 1.25 to close at Rs 27.42 with 11.899 million shares.

Colgate Palmolive and Mari Petroleum were the top gainers with Rs 86.33 and Rs 75.08, respectively to close at Rs 2,461.33 and Rs 1,440.26. Sapphire Textile and Indus Dyeing were the top losers with Rs 35.99 and Rs 30.05, respectively to close at Rs 900.01 and Rs 527.00.

BR Automobile Assembler Index decreased by 41.04 points or 0.66 percent to close at 6,157.41 points with total turnover of 2.642 million shares.

BR Cement Index declined by 76.84 points or 1.95 percent to close at 3,856.70 points with 16.002 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index plunged by 104.68 points or 1.02 percent to close at 10,155.79 points with 27.196 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index fell by 33.63 points or 0.58 percent to close at 5,795.97 points with 8.258 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index lost 16.8 points or 0.33 percent to close at 5,033.46 points with 11.142 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 1,042.08 points, down 26.99 points or 2.52 percent with 25.616 million shares.

"Another weak trading session was witnessed at the local bourse where the KSE-100 Index closed at 42,747 levels, down 420 points," Maaz Mulla at JS Global Capital said. Such bearish sentiments at the bourse can be attributed to the news that a Pakistani delegation has arrived in Beijing for highly important three-day face-to-face talks with the global money laundering watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF) working group that would start on January 21, he added.

Major movers of the market were ENGRO (down 3.3 percent), EFERT (down 5.5 percent), UBL (down 2.0 percent), HBL (down 1.3 percent), DAWH (down 2.8 percent), PPL (down 1.1 percent) and LUCK (down 1.2 percent) which drove the market in the negative zone. Furthermore as per news reports, ECC has approved reduction in Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC) for the fertilizer sector to lower urea prices by Rs 400/bag. FFC (up 3.5 percent) and FFBL (up 5.5 percent) closed positive while on the flipside EFERT (down 5.5 percent) and FATIMA (down 1.5 percent) closed in the red zone.