BRIndex100 extends losses

A bearish trend continued on Pakistan Stock Exchange on the last day of the trading week due to investor concern over political uncertainty. BRIndex100 lost 40.68 points or 0.92 percent to close at 4,404.55 points Friday. BRIndex100 touched intraday high of 4,445.75 and intraday low of 4,390.98 points. Volumes stood at 116.126 million shares.
BRIndex30 decreased by 301.06 points or 1.36 percent to 21,754.93 points with total turnover of 93.493 million shares. The benchmark KSE-100 index declined by 304.08 points to 41,105.41 points. Daily trading volumes on the ready counter stood at 133.237 million shares as compared to 139.839 million shares traded Thursday.
The market capitalization decreased by Rs 40 billion to Rs 8.472 trillion. Out of total 362 active scrips, 235 closed in negative, 101 in positive while the value of 26 stocks remained unchanged.
Sui Northern Gas was the volume leader with 10.115 million shares. It increased by Rs 5.80 to close at Rs 124.49 followed by K-Electric that lost Re 0.22 to close at Rs 5.75 with 10.056 million shares. Rafhan Maize and Khyber Tobacco were the top gainers with Rs 84.99 and Rs 76.60, respectively to close at Rs 7,010.00 and Rs 1,636.00. Hinopak Motor and Marti Petroleum were the top losers with Rs 52.76 and Rs 34.70, respectively to close at Rs 1,017.24 and Rs 1,415.77.
BR Commercial Banks Index decreased by 108.19 or 1.35 percent to close at 7,893.41 points with total turnover of 17.181 million shares. BR Cement Index lost 57.14 points or 1.06 percent to close at 5,358.18 points with 11.890 million shares. BR Oil and Gas Index closed at 4,950.52 points, down 25.63 points or 0.52 percent with 15.915 million shares. BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 1,182.99 with a net negative change of -0.17 points or 0.01 percent with 11.381 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index lost 98.97 points or 1.5 percent to close at 6,490.78 points with total turnover of 11.908 million shares. Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said pressure remained in stocks across the board amid futures contracts rollover on investor concerns for prevailing political noise. Late session support witnessed in selected cement, banking and pharma stocks on rising local cement prices, upbeat financial results and levy of higher regulatory import duties. He said concerns for economic uncertainty and falling FX reserves played a catalyst role in bearish close.