KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Monday witnessed a bearish trend due to selling in various sectors. BRIndex100 lost 36.7 points or 0.83 percent to close at 4,402.35 points. BRIndex100 hit intraday high of 4,439.36 and intraday low of 4,397.20 points. Volumes stood at 399.185 million shares. BRIndex30 decreased by 229.66 points or 1.01 percent to close at 22,446.89 points with total daily turnover of 230.968 million shares.

The KSE-100 Index declined by 330.62 points or 0.78 percent to close at 42,174.14 points. Trading activities also remained low as daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 433.941 million shares as compared to 516.126 million shares traded on previous session.

Foreign investors also remained net sellers of shares worth $604,314. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 53 billion to Rs 7.892 trillion. Out of total 408 active scrips, 277 closed in negative and 115 in positive while the value of 16 stocks remained unchanged.

Aisha Steel Mill was the volume leader with 58.910 million shares and increased by Rs 0.98 to close at Rs 15.49 followed by Unity Foods that gained Rs 0.26 to close at Rs 18.35 with 48.202 million shares. Island Textile and Gatron Industries were the top gainers increasing by Rs 72.61 and Rs 42.43 respectively to close at Rs 1040.78 and Rs 671.00 while Colgate Palmolive and Nestle Pakistan were the top losers declining by Rs 101.83 and Rs 93.33 respectively to close at Rs 2,970.00 and Rs 6,900.00.

BR Automobile Assembler Index closed at 7,973.41 points, up by only 0.84 points or 0.01 percent with total turnover of 5.053 million shares.

BR Cement Index lost 17.64 points or 0.3 percent to close at 5,955.68 points with 21.177 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index plunged by 82.78 points or 0.97 percent to close at 8,478.12 points with 26.922 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index declined by 48.8 points or 0.94 percent to close at 5,128.56 points with 40.190 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index decreased by 41.29 points or 0.97 percent to close at 4,194.11 points with 24.787 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 1,974.45 points, down 16.09 points or 0.81 percent with 26.089 million shares.

Maaz Mulla at JS Global Capital said that the KSE-100 Index after making a high and low of plus 46 and minus 383 points closed at 42,174 levels, down 331 points.

The market remained lackluster as investors await the monetary policy announcement later in the evening on Monday. Lack of immediate triggers restrained investors to remain on the fence.

Financials, Fertilizers and E&Ps were major laggards where HBL (down 0.9 percent), MCB (down 0.5 percent), ENGRO (down 0.9 percent), FFC (down 1.2 percent), OGDC (down 1.6 percent), PPL (down 0.9 percent) and POL (down 0.3 percent) closed in the red zone.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020