KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Monday remained under pressure and closed on a negative note due to selling in various sectors. BRIndex100 lost 23.53 points or 0.48 percent to close at 4,832.41 points. BRIndex100 hit intraday high of 4,870.72 and intraday low of 4,803.93 points. Volumes stood at 475.744 million shares.

BRIndex30 decreased by 74.1 points or 0.29 percent to close at 25,751.58 points with a turnover of 289.909 million shares.

The KSE-100 Index declined by 208.43 points or 0.46 percent and closed at 44,978.05 points. Trading activity remained low as daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 503.526 million shares as compared to 688.037 million shares traded on previous session.

Foreign investors however remained net sellers of shares worth $122,301. The market capitalization declined by Rs 58 billion to Rs 7.868 trillion. Out of total 387 active scrips, 234 closed in negative and 130 in positive while the value of 23 stocks remained unchanged.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 73.751 million shares and gained Rs 0.09 to close at Rs 1.52 followed by TRG Pak that increased by Rs 9.08 to close at Rs 168.69 with 42.170 million shares. AKD Capital and Shezan International were the top gainers increasing by Rs 28.69 and Rs 10.00 respectively to close at Rs 411.31 and Rs 315.00 while Colgate Palmolive and Sapphire Textile were the top losers declining by Rs 50.00 and Rs 47.07, respectively to close at Rs 2750.00 and Rs 814.00.

BR Automobile Assembler Index declined by 98.57 points or 1.11 percent to close at 8,765.84 points with total turnover of 1.922 million shares.

BR Cement Index lost 39.88 points or 0.55 percent to close at 7,273.55 points with 16.360 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index fell by 26.7 points or 0.31 percent to close at 8,488.83 points with 18.447 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index decreased by 34.8 points or 0.62 percent to close at 5,584.20 points with 7.784 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index closed at 3,943.87 points, down 33.19 points or 0.83 percent with 11.362 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index plunged by 104.85 points or 2.73 percent to close at 3,940.29 points with 216.879 million shares.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market took toll from possibility of imposition of lockdown in the light of NCOC proposal, although a firm decision is yet to be taken.

Selling pressure was evident across the board with the exception of few scrips, including TRG, GGL, MCB and FFC, which somewhat supported the index.

Refinery sector, which has lately coincided with technology stocks also went down following weak investor sentiment.

Sectors contributing to the performance include O&GMCs (down 36 points), Banks (down 32 points), Pharma (down 26 points), Chemical (down 23 points) and Cement (down 23 points).

Stocks that contributed positively to the index include TRG (up 98 points), FFC (up 24 points), MCB (up 19 points), EFERT (up 12 points) and LUCK (up 6 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include ENGRO (down 44 points), PSO (down 25 points), OGDC (down 22 points), SEARL (down 21 points) and UBL (down 16 points).

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021