BRIndex100 reverses gains

Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed a declining trend as investors opted to book profit on available margins Thursday. BRIndex100 lost 24.11 points or 0.51 percent to close at 4,720.39 points. BRIndex-100 touched intraday high of 4,773.03 and intraday low of 4,713.87 points. Volumes stood at 197.607 million shares.
BRIndex30 decreased by 235.78 points or 1.0 percent to close at 23,423.18 points with a turnover of 165.692 million shares. The benchmark KSE-100 index declined by 196.09 points to close at 43,948.11 points. Daily trading volumes increased to 227.213 million shares as compared to 223.429 million shares traded Wednesday.
Foreign investors remained net sellers of shares worth $0.4 million. The market capitalization declined by Rs 34 billion to Rs 9.036 trillion. Out of total 357 active scrips, 215 closed in negative, 114 in positive while the value of 28 stocks remained unchanged.
Bank of Punjab was the volume leader with 63.250 million shares. However, it lost Re 0.03 to close at Rs 13.04 followed by Pak Elektron that increased by Rs 1.26 to close at Rs 39.78 with 21.721 million shares. Colgate Palmolive and Khyber Textile were the top gainers with Rs 129.00 and Rs 18.35, respectively to close at Rs 3,598.00 and Rs 385.39. Sapphire Textile and ICI Pakistan were the top losers with Rs 60.00 and Rs 43.57, respectively to close at Rs 1,140.09 and Rs 866.13.
BR Commercial Banks Index declined by 108.31 points or 1.18 percent to close at 9,052.13 points with total turnover of 81.387 million shares. BR Cement Index gained 30.06 points or 0.58 percent to close at 5,244.34 points with 13.566 million shares. BR Oil and Gas Index lost 17.67 points or 0.32 percent to close at 5,509.41 points with 4.539 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 1,182.78 points, up 1.31 points or 0.11 percent with 9.087 million shares. BR Power Generation and Distribution Index decreased by 18.63 points or 0.3 percent to close at 6,170.21 points with 7.610 million shares. An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said the market did take a breather and bearish pressures found their way in. Largely, selling was observed in Steel, Banks and Cement. EPCL and LOTCHEM faired good volumes on the back of healthier margins.
Scripts that contributed positively include LUCK (up 35 points), POL (up 24 points), COLG (up 13 points), UBL (up 9 points) and DGKC (up 8 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include HBL (down 72 points), ENGRO (down 41 points), ABL (down 16 points), MCB (down 16 points) and HMB (down 14 points).