Bears dominated the trading session on the opening day of the week as the KSE-100 Index lost 120 points amid higher volumes on Monday.

The benchmark index recorded an intraday high of 47,930.54, but erased all the gains to end 0.25% lower. At close, the KSE-100 finished at 47,672.68.

“The start of the futures rollover week, with an outstanding open position of Rs28.07 billion, coupled with concerns of a ballooning current account deficit kept the market gains in check,” said Topline Securities in its post-market comment.

KSE-100 ends in red, volume down

Pakistan's current account ended with a deficit of $1.8 billion in FY21 due to an import bill that rose to $53.8 billion.

The decline also comes as stricter coronavirus measures come into force in Sindh from Monday. Pakistan has witnessed a surge in coronavirus cases amid fears of the spread of the Delta variant.

The sectors dragging the benchmark KSE-100 downward included oil and gas exploration (69.49 points), cement (67.29 points), and pharmaceutical (23.77 points).

Volume on the all-share index increased from 314.16 million on Friday to 450.24 million on Monday. The value of shares traded during the session amounted to Rs13.58 billion, an increase from Rs11.09 billion on Friday.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 127.88 million shares, followed by Telecard Limited with 45.07 million shares, and TPL Corp Ltd at 17.42 million shares.

Shares of 394 companies were traded on Monday, of which 187 registered an increase, 187 recorded a fall, while 20 remained unchanged.