BRIndex100 extends losses

Pakistan Stock Exchange Wednesday witnessed a bearish trend on the second consecutive day due to selling in various sectors.
BRIndex100 lost 45.23 points or 0.98 percent to close at 4,563.91 points. BRIndex100 touched intraday high of 4,614.19 and intraday low of 4,560.55 points. Volumes stood at 122.125 million shares.
BRIndex30 decreased by 266.43 points or 1.15 percent to close at 22,992.36 points with a turnover of 88.351 million shares.
The benchmark KSE-100 index declined by 295.03 points or 0.69 percent to close at 42,249.44 points. Trading activity also remained thin as daily volumes on the ready counter decreased to 134.791 million shares as compared to 183.665 million shares traded Tuesday.
Foreign investors remained net sellers of shares worth $3.7 million. The market capitalization declined by Rs 11 billion to Rs 8.701 trillion. Out of total 390 active scrips, 266 closed in negative, only 96 in positive while the value of 28 stocks remained unchanged.
Agritech Limited was the volume leader with 14.415 million shares. It gained Re 0.15 to close at Rs 7.48 followed by Unity Foods that increased by Re 0.73 to close at Rs 43.62 with 9.242 million shares.
Nestle Pakistan and Pak Tobacco were the top gainers with Rs 485.00 and Rs 106.75, respectively to close at Rs 10,560.00 and Rs 2,241.80. Bata Pak and Island Textile were the top losers with Rs 53.00 and Rs 48.00, respectively to close at Rs 1,812.00 and Rs 1,265.00.
BR Commercial Banks Index lost 33.94 points or 0.39 percent to close at 8,710.70 points with total turnover of 7.318 million shares.
BR Cement Index declined by 109.77 points or 2.2 percent to close at 4,884.14 points with 12.613 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index decreased by 45.37 points or 0.84 percent to close at 5,327.52 points with 7.974 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 1,259.14 points, down 10.9 points or 0.86 percent with 7.656 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index plunged by 81.37 points or 1.36 percent to close at 5,889.55 points with 3.848 million shares.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said the KSE-100 index slipped another 295 points with major dent in Cement, E&P and Power sector. The cause of concern was the ECC meeting where important decision relating to increase in cost of gas was to be made. The outcome of ECC's meeting was postponement of decision on gas price, which resulted in uplift in some scrips.
Besides Cement, Fertilizer sector also got marred due to the bearish sentiment. Another key decision taken at the meeting was PSO's bailout that helped pick up in volume though the price impact was not pronounced.
Sectors contributing to the performance include Cement (down 81 points), E&P (down 62 points), Power (down 46 points), Fertilizer (down 45 points) and Banks (down 41 points).
Scripts that contributed positively include PAKT (up 28 points), NESTLE (up 23 points), ENGRO (up 11 points), KTML (up 9 points) and MTL (up 9 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include LUCK (down 31 points), FFC (down 28 points), PPL (down 27 points), UBL (down 21 points) and HUBC (down 18 points).