KARACHI: A bearish trend continued on Pakistan Stock Exchange Thursday due to selling by local and foreign investors.

BRIndex100 lost another 52.24 points or 1.01 percent to close at 5,129.64 points.

BRIndex100 hit intraday high of 5,196.91 points and intraday low of 5,123.18 points. Volumes stood at 275.661 million shares.

BRIndex30 decreased by 470.23 points or 1.84 percent to close at 25,094.78 points with a turnover of 150.294 million shares.

The KSE-100 Index declined by 272.63 points or 0.57 percent to close at 47,363.27 points. Trading activity remained low as daily volumes on the ready counter decreased to 360.812 million shares as compared to 384.627 million shares traded Wednesday.

Foreign investors also remained net sellers of shares worth $651,979. The market capitalization declined by Rs 57 billion to Rs 8.285 trillion. Out of total 483 active scrips, 350 closed in negative and 118 in positive while the value of 15 stocks remained unchanged.

Hascol Petroleum was the volume leader with 28.766 million shares and gained Rs 0.49 to close at Rs 7.92 followed by Ghani Glo Hol that declined by Rs 3.38 to close at Rs 42.34 with 25.109 million shares. Unilever Foods and Pak Services were the top gainers increasing by Rs 440.00 and Rs 70.00 respectively to close at Rs 18000.00 and Rs 1075.00 while Nestle Pakistan and Rafhan Maize were the top losers declining by Rs 50.00 and Rs 50.00 to close at Rs 5650.00 and Rs 9950.00.

BR Automobile Assembler Index decreased by 82.58 points or 0.83 percent to close at 9,866.40 points with total turnover of 1.958 million shares.

BR Cement Index plunged by 185.6 points or 2.6 percent to close at 6,941.91 points with 22.319 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index lost 21.37 points or 0.22 percent to close at 9,598.13 points with 20.578 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index fell by 54.59 points or 0.99 percent to close at 5,486.47 points with 8.631 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index closed at 3,922.77 points, down 28.18 points or 0.71 percent with 34.837 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index gained 43.61 points or 0.94 percent to close at 4,681.31 points with 55.401 million shares.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market traded rangebound between plus 124 points and minus 374 points, closing the session down 273 points.

Rollover week had its toll on the market, besides disappointment from financial results and slippage of PKR against USD. Selling pressure was evident in Cement, Steel and Power sectors.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Cement (down 134 points), O&GMCs (down 32 points), Power (down 19 points), Fertilizer (down 19 points) and Banks (down 17 points).

Stocks that contributed positively to the index include SYS (up 79 points), PSEL (up 35 points), MCB (up 13 points), BAHL (up 8 points) and FABL (up 8 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include LUCK (down 75 points), TRG (down 26 points), DGKC (down 18 points), HBL (down 16 points) and PSO (down 14 points).

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021