Stocks ended 271 points lower Friday. The KSE-100 index settled at 31,012 points weighed mainly by selling pressure in the heavyweights. "Stock closed bearish amid investor concerns for foreign outflows and ongoing regulatory oversight at PSX," said Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp.
The day marked foreign investors sell net portfolios of $3.128 million. While individuals and overseas Pakistanis bought positions worth $1,058 and $85,876 the foreign institutions offloaded $3.21 million stocks.
Institutional support witnessed in banking and fertilizers scrips on strong earnings, the analyst said adding that falling global equities and crude prices played a catalyst role in the day's bearish close.
"Index heavyweight stocks continued in a selling pressure led the local bourse to decline," Hammad Aman, manager equity at Topline Securities, said.
Trading turnover dropped to 109 million shares worth Rs 5.81 billion. Of the total 319 scrips traded, only 77 ended up in green while 223 lost value and 19 remained unchanged.
The market capital accumulated down to Rs 6.53 trillion.
TRG Pakistan appeared as a volume leader with 9.6 million trade. The value of the stock depleted to Rs24.73 at close. Others traded the most were Pak Elektron, NBP, Engro Fertilizers, Bank of Punjab, Pak Elektron, WorldCall Telecom, Amreli Steels, OGDC and SSGC.
"NBP announced better than expected result with earnings of Rs9.03 and dividend of Rs7.5 per share which led the stock to close at its upper limit," said Aman. Volume in the trade of future contracts remained lower at 19.3 million compared to Thursday's 21.5 million.