BRIndex100 extends losses

A bearish trend continued on Pakistan Stock Exchange due to selling in various sectors. BRIndex100 lost 19.3 points or 0.44 percent to close at 4,402.01 points Thursday. BRIndex100 touched intraday high of 4,435.77 and intraday low of 4,398.37 points. Volumes stood at 124.686 million shares. BRIndex30 decreased by 92.94 points or 0.4 percent to close at 23,214.19 points with a turnover of 83.433 million shares.
The KSE-100 index declined by 172.93 points or 0.42 percent to close at 41,332.75 points. Trading activity remained thin as daily volumes on the ready counter decreased to 137.668 million shares as compared to 205.164 million shares traded Wednesday. The market capitalization declined by Rs 39 billion to Rs 8.200 trillion. Out of total 361 active scrips, 229 closed in negative, 119 in positive while the value of 13 stocks remained unchanged.
Lotte Chemical was the volume leader with 16.004 million shares. It gained Re 0.56 to close at Rs 17.48 followed by Pak Elektron that increased by Re 0.60 to close at Rs 28.28 with 12.197 million shares. Colgate Palmolive and Service Ind. Limited were the top gainers with Rs 30.00 and Rs 19.90, respectively to close at Rs 2,000.00 and Rs 829.90. Nestle Pakistan and Philip Morris Pak were the top losers with Rs 200.00 and Rs 127.00, respectively to close at Rs 8,800.00 and Rs 3,100.00.
BR Commercial Banks Index lost 26.04 points or 0.29 percent to close at 8,899.88 points with total turnover of 10.247 million shares. BR Cement Index declined by 67.15 points or 1.49 percent to close at 4,425.65 points with 12.244 million shares. BR Oil and Gas Index decreased by 20.48 points or 0.41 percent to close at 5,023.45 points with 4.135 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index gained 1.04 points or 0.1 percent to close at 1,060.65 points with 9.374 million shares. BR Power Generation and Distribution Index closed at 6,389.52 points, down 33.13 points or 0.52 percent with 2.943 million shares.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market corrected its course further, after Wednesday's decline of 109 points. The market ended 172.93 points down. Although the sentiment remained positive and healthy activity was observed in Chemical, Cable and Steel, largely the sectors which gained in past couple of sessions saw profit booking. Chemical Sector saw LOTCHEM gaining momentum with a total volume of 16 million shares, whereas PAEL realized trading volume of 12 million shares among Cable. Clearly, investors' interest shifted from main board scrips to side board and downward trend in scrips like HBL, UBL, DGKC, LUCK caused concern among investors. Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (down 52 points), Fertilizer (down 47 points), Cement (down 45 points), E&P (down 33 points), Power (down 29 points) and Engineering (up 11 points).
Stocks that contributed positively include SEARL (up 10 points), EFERT (up 8 points), MEBL (up 6 points), INDU (up 5 points) and INIL (up 5 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include DAWH (down 29 points), PPL (down 26 points), HUBC (down 26 points), LUCK (down 21 points) and UBL (down 20 points).