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

BRIndex100 decreased by 63.75 points or 1.32 percent to close at 4,754.79 points. BRIndex100 hit intraday high of 4,863.75 points and intraday low of 4,726.56 points. Volumes stood at 402.753 million shares.

BRIndex30 declined by 597.74 points or 2.55 percent to close at 22,842.70 points with a daily turnover of 290.460 million shares.

The KSE-100 Index plunged by 300.36 points or 0.66 percent to close at 45,296.88 points. Trading activity remained thin as daily volumes on the ready counter decreased to 443.777 million shares as compared to 583.732 million shares traded Wednesday. Foreign investors also remained net sellers of shares worth $437,041. The market capitalization declined by Rs 60 billion to Rs 7.872 trillion. Out of total 514 active scrips, 349 closed in negative and 143 in positive while the value of 22 stocks remained unchanged. WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 89.120 million shares however lost Rs 0.03 to close at Rs 2.95 followed by Hum Network that closed at Rs 6.00, down Rs 0.25 with 29.216 million shares. Sapphire Fiber and Abbott Lab were the top gainers increasing by Rs 60.00 and Rs 47.26 respectively to close at Rs 860.00 and Rs 788.72 while Colgate Palmolive and Gatron Industries were the top losers declining by Rs 47.04 and Rs 38.62 respectively to close at Rs 2310.01 and Rs 476.38.

BR Automobile Assembler Index lost 57.73 points or 0.65 percent to close at 8,874.89 points with total turnover of 2.335 million shares.

BR Cement Index fell by 45.95 points or 0.76 percent to close at 5,997.56 points with 18.865 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index decreased by 35.97 points or 0.38 percent to close at 9,493.26 points with 25.354 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index closed at 5,480.04 points, down 3.35 points or 0.06 percent with 17.940 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index declined by 44.54 points or 1.19 percent to close at 3,690.66 points with 15.980 million shares.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that the stocks closed lower on uncertainty over the outcome of the IMF talks next month and the ADB forecast of 4 percent thin growth short of the SBP forecast at 4.5 percent and federal budget target at 4.8 percent for FY22.

He said SBP hike in key policy rate, hike in government treasury bond yields by 49bps and weak rupee played a catalyst role in bearish close.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021