Negative sentiment continued to persist at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), as the benchmark KSE-100 Index decreased again while volume of shares traded also remained on the lower side on Thursday.

At close, the KSE-100 finished with a drop of 243.70 points or 0.53% to finish at 45,441.10.

The volume of shares traded increased to over 150 million on the all-share index, but still a far cry from levels usually seen on the PSX.

“Pakistan equities commenced the day on a negative note in the backdrop of below-expectation corporate results where Engro Corp announced its CY21 earnings, accompanied by payout of Rs1 against street expectation of Rs4-5,” said Topline Securities in its post-market comment.

“(Furthermore) the news flow regarding resumption in Russia/Ukraine tension further deteriorated sentiment, which triggered selling across the board,” it added.

On the economic front, the Senate in a major development for the power sector passed the Weighted Average Cost of Gas (WACOG) bill.

On the corporate front, Engro Corporation Limited announced its 4QCY21 financial result with a bottom-line of Rs4.8 billion (EPS: PKR 8.28) in contrast to Rs6.8 billion (EPS: PKR 11.73) in SPLY, depicting a decline of 29% YoY.

Low volume: KSE-100 ends marginally negative after range-bound session

Sectors dragging the benchmark index lower included fertiliser (61.83 points), investment banking (47.76 points), and power generation and distribution (47.23 points).

Volume on the all-share index increased to 152.86 million from 145.31 million on Wednesday. The value of shares traded also marginally increased to Rs4.78 billion from Rs4.14 billion recorded in the previous session.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 16.16 million shares, followed by Hum Network with 14.44 million shares, and Telecard Limited with 10.47 million shares.

Shares of 348 companies were traded on Thursday, of which 99 registered an increase, 229 recorded a fall, and 20 remained unchanged.