KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Thursday witnessed a bearish trend due to selling by local and foreign investors.

BRIndex100 lost 34.94 points or 0.83 percent to close at 4,158.27 points. During the session, the BRIndex-100 hit an intraday high of 4,205.64 and an intraday low of 4,147.83 points. Total volumes stood at 344.335 million shares.

BRIndex30 decreased by 129.8 points or 0.6 percent to close at 21,520.94 points with total daily turnover of 183.523 million shares.

The KSE-100 Index declined by 285.56 points or 0.71 percent and closed below 40,000 psychological level at 39,868.55 points. Trading activities remained low as daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 394.620 million shares as compared to 427.204 million shares traded Wednesday.

The foreign investors remained on the selling side and withdrew $2.679 million from the Pakistan's capital market. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 39 billion to Rs 7.418 trillion. Out of total 401 active scrips, 238 closed in negative and 145 in positive while the value of 18 stocks remained unchanged.

TRG Pak was the volume leader with 30.418 million shares and increased by Rs 1.33 to close at Rs 51.20 followed by PTCL that gained Rs 27.00 to close at Rs 9.46 with 21.046 million shares. Unilever Foods and Bhanero Textile were the top gainers increasing by Rs 100.00 and Rs 74.56 respectively to close at Rs 9700.00 and Rs 1068.93 while Nestle Pakistan and Island Textile were the top losers declining by Rs 80.00 and Rs 70.53 respectively to close at Rs 6210.00 and Rs 922.80.

BR Automobile Assembler Index decreased by 66.94 points or 0.84 percent to close at 7,869.24 points with total turnover of 2.687 million shares.

BR Cement Index declined by 112.11 points or 2.01 percent to close at 5,476.93 points with 28.670 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index lost 36.37 points or 0.45 percent to close at 8,102.52 points with 36.745 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index fell by 67.74 points or 1.34 percent to close at 4,991.60 points with 41.797 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index closed at 4,158.74 points, down 29.47 points or 0.7 percent with 34.822 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index gained 21.98 points or 1.37 percent to close at 1,622.74 points with 84.552 million shares.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market opened on a positive note with plus 29 points, however, couldn't carry the momentum showed in the previous sessions and posted a loss of 372 points in total during the session.

Selling activity was observed in Fertilizer, Cement, Refinery and O&GMCs and intensified by the end of session, especially after announcement of MCB's and FABL's financial results. FABL hit lower circuit after the announcement. Similarly, MCB lost ground after announcement, however, traded above lower circuit.

Regional markets already showed bearish activity at the beginning of the session. Wednesday's PIB auction also saw rise in shorter term tenors.

Technology sector topped the volumes with 84.5 million shares, followed by Power (40.2 million shares) and Banks (36.7 million shares).

Sectors contributing to the performance include Cement (down 81 points), Banks (down 39 points), O&GMCs (down 26 points), E&P (down 24 points) and Power (down 23 points).

Stocks that contributed positively to the index include HBL (up 19 points), ABL (up 17 points), TRG (up 14 points), KAPCO (up 13 points) and FFC (up 10 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include MCB (down 68 points), HUBC (down 31 points), LUCK (down 29 points), ENGRO (down 25 points) and PPL (down 16 points).

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020