KARACHI: Despite foreign buying, Pakistan Stock Exchange Friday witnessed a bearish trend and closed on a negative note due to selling by local investors. BRIndex100 lost 23.64 points or 0.51 percent to close at 4,652.36 points. BRIndex100 hit intraday high of 4,685.11 points and intraday low of 4,645.24 points. Volumes stood at 157.543 million shares.

BRIndex30 decreased by 307.87 points or 1.38 percent to close at 22,060.95 points with a turnover of 90.956 million shares.

The KSE-100 Index declined by 108.81 points or 0.24 percent and closed at 44,477.24 points. Trading activity remained low as daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 176.069 million shares as compared to 296.037 million shares traded Thursday.

Foreign investors however remained net buyers of shares worth $4.142 million. Total market capitalization however increased by Rs 4 billion to Rs 7.786 trillion. Out of total 550 active scrips, 369 closed in negative and 165 in positive while the value of 16 stocks remained unchanged.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 18.534 million shares and closed at Rs 2.53, down Rs 0.01 followed by Telecard Limited that lost Rs 0.59 to close at Rs 18.67 with 14.159 million shares. Unilever Foods and Colgate Palmolive were the top gainers increasing by Rs 1200.00 and Rs 97.95 respectively to close at Rs 20400.00 and Rs 2448.00 while Highnoon (Lab) and Rafhan Maize were the top losers declining by Rs 27.82 and Rs 25.00 respectively to close at Rs 589.18 and Rs 10,900.00.

BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 32.29 points or 0.38 percent to close at 8,619.65 points with total turnover of 1.727 million shares.

BR Cement Index declined by 111.69 points or 1.99 percent to close at 5,512.37 points with 9.836 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index inched up by 41.75 points or 0.45 percent to close at 9,395.30 points with 23.037 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index decreased by 50.32 points or 0.92 percent to close at 5,426.61 points with 5.161 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index lost 0.76 points or 0.02 percent to close at 3,738.95 points with 8.277 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 4,720.88 points, up 13.61 points or 0.29 percent with 52.488 million shares.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that stocks closed lower amid thin trade on investor concerns for foreign outflows, The WB lower forecast growth of 3.4 percent in FY22 and surging in trade deficit near to $11.664 billion during July-September 2021. Midsession support remained on institutional interest following rupee recovery.

He said dismal data on cement sales falling by 6 percent in July-September 2021 and concerns for 11.5 percent on year-on-year basis surge in government debt near to Rs 39.7 trillion in August 2021 played a catalyst role in bearish close.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021