KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange on Thursday remained under selling pressure and closed on a negative note as investors opted to book profit on available margins.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index declined by 620.23 points or 0.72 percent and closed at 85,585.43 points. The index hit 86,520.29 points intra-day high and 85,539.20 points intra-day low levels.

The daily trading volumes on ready counter increased to 513.288 million shares as compared to 474.333 million shares traded on Wednesday. The daily traded value on the ready counter declined to Rs 21.612 billion against previous session’s Rs 26.942 billion.

BRIndex100 decreased by 61.57 points or 0.67 percent to close at 9,143.18 points with total daily turnover of 448.448 million shares.

BRIndex30 plunged by 391.21 points or 1.41 percent to close at 27,326.11 points with total daily trading volumes of 301.604 million shares.

Foreign investors also remained on the selling side and withdrew $4.815 million from the local equity market. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 81 billion to Rs 11.188 trillion. Out of total 450 active scrips, 208 closed in negative and 173 in positive while the value of 69 stocks remained unchanged.

Pak Refinery was the volume leader with 57.826 million shares and increased by Rs 1.50 to close at Rs 26.45 followed by Fauji Foods that gained Rs 0.63 to close at Rs 9.34 with 57.329 million shares. The Searle Company lost Rs 0.07 to close at Rs 63.25 with 30.393 million shares.

Hallmark Company and Rafhan Maize Products Company were the top gainers increasing by Rs 79.66 and Rs 73.02 respectively to close at Rs 876.21 and Rs 7,332.73 while Nestle Pakistan and Ismail Industries were the top losers declining by Rs 100.00 and Rs 86.63 respectively to close at Rs 6,800.00 and Rs 1,710.95.

An analyst at Topline Securities said that profit taking was observed at the bourse after index soared to close at an all-time of high 86,205 points as of Wednesday`s close. The profit taking was largely led by banking and E&P sector as they lost value to weigh down on the index by minus 348 points.

PRL was the volume leader with 58 million shares which can be attributed to news that Chinese Investment Corporation has agreed to provide $1.0 billion to company for its upgradation project.

BR Automobile Assembler Index lost 43.37 points or 0.25 percent to close at 17,409.44 points with total turnover of 5.597 million shares.

BR Cement Index gained 11.12 points or 0.13 percent to close at 8,284.18 points with 29.615 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index decreased by 223.0 points or 0.91 percent to close at 24,379.35 points with 25.698 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index plunged by 369.49 points or 2.55 percent to close at 14,097.18 points with 38.488 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index declined by 95.81 points or 1.12 percent to close at 8,450.86 points with 16.704 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 3,966.76 points, down 25.3 points or 0.63 percent with 49.851 million shares.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said stocks closed under pressure on political noise amid uncertainty over outcome of judicial reforms and foreign outflows.

He said the Government action on IPPs payments on tariff issues, weak global crude oil prices and delays over privatisation of SOEs played a catalyst role in bearish close.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024