KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Friday closed on a negative note as investors opted to book profits on available margins.

BRIndex100 lost 6.69 points or 0.15 percent to close at 4,438.50 points. BRIndex100 hit intraday high of 4,474.03 and intraday low of 4,427.42 points. Volumes stood at 435.569 million shares.

BRIndex30 decreased by 75.46 points or 0.33 percent to close at 22,798.37 points with a turnover of 240.981 million shares.

The KSE-100 Index declined by 116.68 points or 0.27 percent and closed at 42,530.67 points. Trading activities remained very thin as daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 526.186 million shares as compared to 884.962 million shares traded Thursday.

Foreign investors also remained on selling side and withdrew $2.940 million from Pakistan capital market. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 35 billion to Rs 7.974 trillion. Out of total 431 active scrips, 249 closed in negative and 170 in positive while the value of 12 stocks remained unchanged.

Hascol Petroleum was the volume leader with 61.139 million shares and increased by Rs 0.87 to close at Rs 22.08 followed by Byco Petroleum that lost Rs 0.70 to close at Rs 11.29 with 54.641 million shares. Unilever Foods and Sapphire Textile were the top gainers increasing by Rs 600.00 and Rs 52.08 respectively to close at Rs 13,500.00 and Rs 881.99 while Nestle Pakistan and Bhanero Textile were the top losers declining by Rs 325.99 and Rs 64.99 respectively to close at Rs 6650.01 and Rs 925.01.

BR Automobile Assembler Index increased by 68.32 points or 0.86 percent to close at 8,016.44 points with total turnover of 11.112 million shares.

BR Cement Index declined by 81.52 points or 1.34 percent to close at 6,000.55 points with 43.322 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index gained 28.88 points or 0.34 percent to close at 8,591.84 points with 38.443 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index inched up by 41.41 points or 0.8 percent to close at 5,214.52 points with 26.293 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index decreased by 28.6 points or 0.68 percent to close at 4,202.17 points with 79.325 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 2,022.95 points, down 10.42 points or 0.51 percent with 47.706 million shares.

Maaz Mulla at JS Global Capital said that the KSE-100 Index blew both hot and cold, making an intra-day high of plus 222 points and stooping to a low of minus 190 points, to finally close at 42,530 levels, down 117 points.

Pressure was witnessed in the Cements and E&P sector where POWER (down 2.3 percent), PIOC (down 2.6 percent), MLCF (down 2.5 percent), CHCC (down 2.0 percent), DGKC (down 1.5 percent), PPL (down 2.6 percent) and OGDC (down 0.9 percent) were the major loser of the mentioned sectors.

PPL, from the E&P sector, declared its FY20 results where the company posted an EPS of Rs 18.16 and a cash payout of Rs 1.0 per share. Moreover, ASTL (down 2.9 percent) from the steel sector declared its FY20 result posting a loss of Rs 3.79 per share with no cash payout.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020