KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Monday remained under pressure and closed on negative note due to investor concerns over prevailing political and economic situation in the country.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index hit 41,988.97 points intraday high and 41,726.75 points intraday low during the session before closing at 41,755.45 points, down 193.05 points or 0.46 percent.

Due to investor lack of interest, trading activity also remained thin as total daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 144.312 million shares as compared to 328.653 million shares traded on last Friday while total daily traded value on ready counter declined to Rs 4.667 billion against previous session’s Rs 9.611 billion.

BRIndex100 lost 29.38 points or 0.7 percent to close at 4,192.78 points with total daily turnover of 117.747 million shares.

BRIndex30 declined by 227.03 points or 1.42 percent to close at 15,726.19 points with total daily trading volumes of 81.638 million shares. Foreign investors also remained the net sellers of shares worth $767,324. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 34 billion to Rs 6.784 trillion. Out of total 348 active scrips, 205 closed in negative and 127 in positive while the value of 16 stocks remained unchanged.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 18.042 million shares however lost Rs 0.04 to close at Rs 1.55 followed by Dewan Cement that closed at Rs 5.72, down Rs 0.04 with 6.786 million shares. Lotte Chemical fell by Rs 0.17 to close at Rs 31.92 with 5.776 million shares.

Rafhan Maize and Sanofi-Aventis were the top gainers increasing by Rs 700.00 and Rs 57.00 respectively to close at Rs 11,000.00 and Rs 1,185.00 while Sapphire Fiber and Colgate Palmolive were the top losers declining by Rs 76.52 and Rs 46.80 respectively to close at Rs 1,259.38 and Rs 2,039.50.

An analyst at Topline Securities said that Pakistan equities closed negative where benchmark KSE-100 Index settled at 41,755 level, down 0.46 percent).

After sideways opening market witnessed profit taking as investors concern over uncertain political and economic conditions which led the market to make an intraday low of 222 points. Major negative contributors in the trading session were TRG, OGDC and PPL cumulatively dented the Index by 85 points.

BR Automobile Assembler Index gained 34.31 points or 0.37 percent to close at 9,184.03 points with total turnover of 2.946 million shares.

BR Cement Index decreased by 44.2 points or 0.96 percent to close at 4,574.60 points with 12.572 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index lost 17.69 points or 0.22 percent to close at 8,179.17 points with 5.921 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index inched up by 2.95 points or 0.05 percent to close at 6,433.46 points with 11.572 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index declined by 42.2 points or 1.13 percent to close at 3,686.15 points with 9.217 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 4,387.66 points, down 21.88 points or 0.5 percent with 39.177 million shares.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that a rangebound session was witnessed at the PSX. The benchmark KSE-100 Index shed 193.05 points at the end of the trading session after starting the day in the green due to political unrest. The volumes declined dramatically in the main board however, decent volumes were recorded in the 3rd tier stocks.

Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P (down 49.5 points), Cement (down 32.1 points), Technology and Communication (down 15.2 points), Commercial Banks (down 14.7 points) and Chemical (down 14.2 points).

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022