KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange on Monday witnessed bearish trend with extremely low volumes as the investors avoided to take fresh positions on their concerns over resumption of IMF programme and announcement of mini-budget.

The benchmark KSE-100 index declined by 204.95 points or 0.46 percent and closed below 44,000 psychological level at 43,913.44 points. Trading activities remained very thin as daily volumes declined to 114.669 million shares as compared to 223.379 million shares traded on previous session.

BRIndex100 decreased by 38.35 points or 0.84 percent to close at 4,502.85 points with total daily turnover of 83.690 million shares.

BRIndex30 plunged by 342.24 points or 1.79 percent to close at 18,749.56 points with total daily trading volumes of 56.895 million shares.

The foreign investors however remained net buyers of shares worth $1.795 million. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 26 billion to Rs 7.533 trillion. Out of total 342 active scrips, 196 closed in negative and 116 in positive while the value of 30 stocks remained unchanged.

Cnergyico PK was the volume leader with 10.878 million shares and gained Re 0.02 to close at Rs 6.32 followed by TRG Pak that declined by Rs 5.37 to close at Rs 112.97 with 9.508 million shares.

Colgate Palmolive and Sapphire Textile were the top gainers increasing by Rs 141.01 and Rs 61.50 respectively to close at Rs 2455.00 and Rs 881.50 while Nestle Pakistan and Mari Petroleum were the top losers declining by Rs 270.00 and Rs 56.46 respectively to close at Rs 5400.00 and Rs 1603.53.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said the market remained choppy due to the upcoming mini-budget. Profit-taking was witnessed in the last trading hour while market battled between the bulls and bears throughout the day.

Main board volumes remained on the dull note due to lack of any trigger whereas activity continued to remain side-ways as market witnessed hefty volumes in the 3rd tier stocks.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Oil and Gas Exploration Companies (down 63 points), Technology and Communication (down 55 points), Power Generation and Distribution (down 34 points) Commercial Banks (down 33 points) and Food and Personal Care Products (down 20 points).

BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 6.87 points or 0.08 percent to close at 8,498.68 points with total turnover of 1.032 million shares.

BR Cement Index inched up by 13.1 points or 0.23 percent to close at 5,687.06 points with 4.953 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index lost 35.78 points or 0.37 percent to close at 9,661.52 points with 7.845 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index declined by 61.3 points or 1.09 percent to close at 5,544.79 points with 5.138 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index closed at 3,718.73 points, down 34.74 points or 0.93 percent with 3.529 million shares.

BR Tech & Comm Index plunged by 70.18 points or 1.69 percent to close at 4,073.61 points with 23.191 million shares.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021