KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Monday witnessed a bearish trend and closed on a negative note due to investor concerns over increasing inflation and depreciating local currency. The KSE-100 Index lost 12.89 points or 0.03 percent to close at 45,736.26 points. The KSE-100 Index hit an intra-day high of 45,910.68 points and intra-day low of 45,544.99 points. Trading activity remained low as daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 172.851 million shares as compared to 192.466 million shares traded on previous session.

BRIndex100 closed at 4,715.11 points, down 11.41 points or 0.24 percent with total daily trading volumes of 121.645 million shares.

BRIndex30 declined by 249.56 points or 1.21 percent to close at 20,394.81 points with a turnover of 88.591 million shares.

Foreign investors also remained net sellers of shares worth $1.336 million. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 11 billion to Rs 7.807 trillion. Out of total 345 active scrips, 191 closed in negative and 125 in positive while the value of 29 stocks remained unchanged.

Hascol Petroleum was the volume leader with 18.579 million shares and gained Rs 0.64 to close at Rs 6.53 followed by Ghani Glo Hol that increased by Rs 1.06 to close at Rs 34.15 with 17.843 million shares. Colgate Palmolive and Bata Pak were the top gainers increasing by Rs 68.99 and Rs 59.83 respectively to close at Rs 2500.00 and Rs 1909.00 while Unilever Foods and Ismail Industries were the top losers declining by Rs 529.50 and Rs 35.03 respectively to close at Rs 18949.50 and Rs 432.12.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market remained dul as battle between the bull and bear was boxed in the range bound area. Inflationary concerns feared the investors as weekly inflation witnessed highest increase in three months and further weakening of Pak rupee against the dollar.

In a bid to curb runway inflation in the country, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Saturday raised the Cash Reserve Requirement (CRR) by one percentage point for scheduled banks for the first time in 13 years. Expectation of interest rate hike by SBP in the upcoming monetary policy caused profit booking in cyclical stocks and accumulation in banking stocks. On the flip-side, activity from institutional investors remained lackluster.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Cement (down 29.8 points), Vanaspati and Allied (down 19.2 points), Inv. Banks (down 18 points), OMC’s (down 17.5 points) and Power (down 10.8 points).

BR Automobile Assembler Index lost 11.38 points or 0.13 percent to close at 8,613.39 points with total turnover of 756,660 shares.

BR Cement Index decreased by 40.49 points or 0.67 percent to close at 6,034.33 points with 7.061 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index fell by 11.04 points or 0.11 percent to close at 9,955.86 points with 7.463 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index inched down by 21.98 points or 0.41 percent to close at 5,351.59 points with 5.217 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index gained 3.34 points or 0.09 percent to close at 3,779.19 with 21.152 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 4,370.95 points, up 7.6 points or 0.17 percent with 29.123 million shares.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021