KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange on Wednesday witnessed a bearish trend and closed in red zone with heavy losses as investors opted to book profits on available margins.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index plunged by 419.31 points or 0.86 percent and closed at 48.146.44 points. The index hit 48.614.47 points intra-day high and 48,108.88 points intra-day low level.

Trading activity remained thin as total daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 194.576 million shares as compared to 251.692 million shares traded on Tuesday while total daily traded value on ready counter declined to Rs 7.670 billion against previous session’s Rs 9.038 billion.

BRIndex100 decreased by 52.18 points or 1.06 percent to close at 4,881.49 points with total daily turnover of 174.862 million shares.

BRIndex30 declined by 274.18 points or 1.57 percent to close at 17,162.79 points with total daily trading volumes of 112.664 million shares.

The market capitalization declined by Rs 71 billion to Rs 7.179 trillion. Out of total 339 active scrips, 227 closed in negative and only 88 in positive while the value of 24 stocks remained unchanged.

K-Electric was the volume leader with 19.296 million shares however lost Rs 0.08 to close at Rs 2.28 followed by Dewan Motors that increased by Rs 1.06 to close at Rs 15.14 with 14.109 million shares. OGDC declined by Rs 2.99 to close at Rs 98.28 with 10.957 million shares.

Bata Pak and Reliance Cotton were the top gainers increasing by Rs 44.00 and Rs 25.79 respectively to close at Rs 1770.00 and Rs 488.29 while Allawasaya Textile and Rafhan Maize were the top losers declining by Rs 140.00 and Rs 100.00 respectively to close at Rs 1760.00 and Rs 8500.00.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that stocks closed sharply lower led by scrips across the board on falling rupee and fears over surging inflation to keep interest rates high after caretaker government hiked POL prices to highest ever level.

Surging industrial power tariff impacting corporate earnings outlook and dismal data on negative 10.26 percent LSM growth for FY23 played a catalyst role in bearish close.

BR Automobile Assembler Index lost 54.66 points or 0.6 percent to close at 9,029.16 points with total turnover of 15.245 million shares.

BR Cement Index inched down by 42.66 points or 0.83 percent to close at 5,099.78 points with 7.438 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index fell by 50.17 points or 0.44 percent to close at 11,413.46 points with 17.536 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index declined by 148.45 points or 1.57 percent to close at 9,277.02 points with 31.208 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index decreased by 83.64 points or 1.87 percent to close at 4,380.18 points with 29.677 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index gained 2.74 points or 0.07 percent to close at 3,978.88 points with 23.743 million shares.

Muhammad Waqar Iqbal at JS Global Capital said the market began the day on a downward trend following government’s announcement of petrol prices last night. The KSE-100 Index experienced a decline of 419 points, concluding the day at the 48,146 level.

KEL (down 3.4 percent), DFML (up 7.5 percent), OGDC (down 3.0 percent), WTL (down 1.6 percent) and CNERGY (down 4.6 percent) were the volume leaders.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023