BRIndex100 extends losses

A bearish trend persisted on Pakistan Stock Exchange due to selling in various sectors.
BRIndex100 lost another 36.84 points or 0.91 percent to close at 3,999.57 points Tuesday. BRIndex100 touched intraday high of 4,060.03 and intraday low of 3,988.26 points. Volumes stood at 74.455 million shares.
BRIndex30 decreased by 215.26 points or 1.04 percent to close at 20,392.17 points with a turnover of 51.176 million shares.
The KSE-100 index declined by 318.82 points or 0.83 percent to close at 38,036.03 points. Due to selling pressure, daily trading volumes increased to 144.559 million shares as compared to 65.857 million shares traded Monday.
Foreign investors remained net sellers of shares worth $1.0 million. The market capitalization declined by Rs 67 billion to Rs 7.727 trillion. Out of total 332 active scrips, 232 closed in negative, only 77 in positive while the value of 23 stocks remained unchanged.
Unity Foods (R) was the volume leader with 62.823 million shares. However, it lost Re 0.07 to close at Rs 3.46 followed by K-Electric that closed at Rs 5.25, down Re 0.16 with 8.847 million shares.
Pak Services and Shezan International were the top gainers with Rs 41.40 and Rs 8.33, respectively to close at Rs 989.00 and Rs 445.00. Unilever Foods and Nestle Pakistan were the top losers with Rs 200.00 and Rs 194.50, respectively to close at Rs 7,000.00 and Rs 6,805.50.
BR Commercial Banks Index declined by 98.25 points or 1.16 percent to close at 8,368.71 points with total turnover of 8.409 million shares.
BR Cement Index lost 23.14 points or 0.61 percent to close at 3,773.81 points with 13.706 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index decreased by 33.65 points or 0.72 percent to close at 4,655.69 points with 4.666 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 927.47 points, down 1.39 points or 0.15 percent with 4.629 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index plunged by 95.96 points or 1.77 percent to close at 5,337.62 points with 15.978 million shares.
An analyst at Topline Securities said that the KSE-100 index continued its downward spiral owing to negative market sentiments affecting the equities, amid dollar appreciation against PKR which is now trading at Rs 141.10 (up 0.14 percent/up Rs 0.20). This comes after news reports that Pakistan will be opting flexible exchange rate from managed floating.
Market sentiments were further impacted due to higher than expected CPI Inflation that hits 9.4 percent in March 2019, highest in five years, leading to expectations of further rate hike.
Commercial Banks was the worst performing sector during the day, eroding 117 points from the index. This was followed by OMCs and Power sector, cumulatively reducing the index by 76 points.