Selling pressure in oil and fertiliser stocks brought KSE-100 Index below 23,000 mark Wednesday. The 100 Index shed 166.17 points to close at 22,994.72 against 23,160.89 Tuesday. The local bourse opened in green zone and after a few fluctuations, it slipped into minus zone and closed on same note due to selling pressure. The index touched 23,320 as highest and 22,928 as lowest level during the intra-day trading.
The market capitalisation witnessed negative trend and stood at Rs 5.596 trillion against Rs 5.637 trillion. The trading also remained on higher side and the volume at the ready counter closed at 232.021 million shares from 223.186 million shares. Commenting on the market performance, analysts at JS Global said volatility prevailed at the KSE?100 as the market breached the barrier of 23,000 and closed the day in the red zone at 22,995 points.
They said ENGRO closed down (5.0 percent) on a volume of 5.1mn shares. On the other hand banking sector remained in the limelight as NBP closed +0.9 percent with a volume of 22mn shares. Oil and gas sector came under selling pressure with PSO (down 1.7 percent), PPL (down 1.8 percent) and OGDC (down 0.4 percent) closing in the negative territory, they added. Analysts commented that Engro Corp closed 5 pc down amid concerns about gas supply. NBP remained in the limelight as 22mn shares changed hands with stock closing Rs 0.42 up. Renewed buying interest was also seen in HUBCO amid fall in Pak rupee against USD, they added.
Some 109 scrips witnessed positive trend while a big number of 221 companies lost their prices out of total 350 active stocks. The prices of only 20 shares remained unchanged. Two top gainers for the day were Sanofi-Aventis which moved up by Rs 20.33 to Rs 536.99 and ZIL Limited which gained Rs 7.75 to Rs 162.80. The top losers were Island Textile which fell by Rs 31.14 to Rs 610 and Indus Dyeing which shed Rs 17.18 to Rs 566.67.
On the Top 10 volume leaders, National Bank led the tally with 21m shares. It gained 52 paisa to Rs 55.55. PIAC (A) fell by 36 paisa to Rs 8.46 on 21m shares; PTCLA lost 42 paisa to close at Rs 25.08 on 18m shares. Maple Leaf Cement bagged 58 paisa to close at Rs 25.92 on 13m shares; Jahangir Siddiqui Company gained 45 paisa to Rs 13.13 on 9m shares; and Faysal Bank lost 19 paisa to Rs 11.16 on 8m shares. Arif Habib Corp shed 38 paisa to Rs 23.40 on 8m shares; Fauji Cement lost seven paisa to Rs 13.87 on 6m shares; Fatima Fert stayed put at Rs 25.69 with 5m shares; and Engro Corporation shed Rs 8.83 to close at Rs 167.78 on 5m shares.