KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange on Monday witnessed a bearish trend and closed in negative zone as investors opted to book profits on available margins.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index declined by 223.95 points or 0.27 percent and closed at 81,850.50 points. The index hit 82,463.05 points intraday high and 81,548.65 points intraday low.

Trading activity also remained low as daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 400.309 million shares as compared to 482.373 million shares traded on last Friday. The daily traded value on the ready counter declined to Rs 18.690 billion against previous session’s Rs 30.188 billion.

BRIndex100 closed at 8,615.59 points, up 0.27 points with total daily turnover of 321.159 million shares.

BRIndex30 plunged by 667.56 points or 2.48 percent to close at 26,232.31 points with total daily trading volumes of 182.001 million shares.

Foreign investors also remained on the selling side and withdrew $3.204 million from the local equity market. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 15 billion to stand at Rs 10.708 trillion. Out of total 439 active scrips, 237 closed in negative and 143 in positive while the value of 59 stocks remained unchanged.

Pace (Pak) Limited was the volume leader with 30.381 million shares however decreased by Rs 0.89 to close at Rs 5.39 followed by WorldCall Telecom that lost Rs 0.03 to close at Rs 1.28 with 29.117 million shares. OGDC declined by Rs 2.68 to close at Rs 138.61 with 23.080 million shares.

Sapphire Fibres and Ismail Industries were the top gainers increasing by Rs 129.80 and Rs 124.19 respectively to close at Rs 1,429.90 and Rs 1,750.13 while Unilever Pakistan Foods and Sazgar Engineering Works were the top losers declining by Rs 228.70 and Rs 45.88 respectively to close at Rs 17,387.55 and Rs 973.75.

An analyst at Topline Securities said that the benchmark KSE-100 Index closed the trading session at 81,850, reflecting a decrease of 224 points, or 0.27 percent.

The profit-taking was largely seen in HUBC, MARI, PPL, OGDC, and BAFL, which collectively contributed to a decline of 634 points in the index.

BR Automobile Assembler Index decreased by 176.05 points or 1.02 percent to close at 17,022.70 points with total turnover of 5.796 million shares.

BR Cement Index fell by 77.91 points or 0.98 percent to close at 7,908.81 points with 21.792 million shares

BR Commercial Banks Index increased by 204.97 points or 0.89 percent to close at 23,230.95 points with 20.609 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index plunged by 910.68 points or 4.89 percent to close at 17,716.61 points with 44.247 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index declined by 184.4 points or 2.41 percent to close at 7,467.32 points with 32.195 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index lost 21.48 points or 0.53 percent to close at 4,000.41 points with 76.984 million shares.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said stocks closed lower on political uncertainty after SC backs opposition bid for reserved seats in its detailed judgment and concerns for foreign selling.

He said uncertainty over privatisation of SOEs, government action on IPPs capacity payment issue to terminate PPA and concerns over terms of new IMF program played a catalyrole in bearish close.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024