Oil stocks lead PSX decline: BRIndex100 edges down

A bearish trend continued on Pakistan Stock Exchange due to selling by local and foreign investors Wednesday.

BRIndex100 lost 27.58 points or 0.86 percent to close at 3,184.59 points. BRIndex100 touched intraday high of 3,213.14 and intraday low of 3,158.66 points. Volumes stood at 173.582 million shares.

BRIndex30 decreased by 82.11 points or 0.5 percent to close at 16,211.51 points with a turnover of 143.282 million shares.

The KSE-100 Index declined by 260.28 points or 0.83 percent and closed at 30,971.27 points. Daily trading volumes on ready counter slightly improved to 181.000 million shares as compared to 172.769 million shares traded on Tuesday. The foreign investors remained net sellers of shares worth $0.2 million. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 68 billion to stand at Rs 5.929 trillion. Out of total 333 scrips, 193 closed in negative and 115 in positive while the value of 25 stocks remained unchanged.

Unity Foods was the volume leader with 28.766 million shares and gained Rs 0.70 to close at Rs 10.63 followed by Hascol Petroleum that inched up by Rs 0.11 to close at Rs 14.96 with 25.834 million shares. Bata Pak and Indus Dyeing were the top gainers increasing by Rs 45.00 and Rs 36.05 respectively to close at Rs 1535.00 and Rs 516.78 while Rafhan Maize and Pak Tobacco were the top losers declining by Rs 310.81 and Rs 131.17 respectively to close at Rs 6389.19 and Rs 1617.82.

BR Automobile Assembler Index lost 38.02 points or 0.84 percent to close at 4,501.68 points with total turnover of 702,030 shares.

BR Cement Index decreased by 51.82 points or 1.43 percent to close at 3,574.94 points with 42.119 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index declined by 101.75 points or 1.46 percent to close at 6,869.01 points with 15.635 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index gained 20.16 points or 0.46 percent to close at 4,395.77 points with 7.720 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index fell by 31.44 points or 0.98 percent to close at 3,161.04 points with 35.439 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 710.78 points, down 6.45 points or 0.9 percent with 5.716 million shares.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that the stocks closed sharply lower amid pressure in oil scrips and industrials amid falling global crude oil and slump in exports pressuring rupee parity.

He said investor concerns for global equity selloff, foreign outflows and ongoing rupee instability played a catalyst role in bearish close at PSX.