Pakistan Stock Exchange Monday remained under pressure due to selling from local and foreign investors. BRIndex100 lost 26.13 points or 0.58 percent to 4,463.93 points. BRIndex100 touched an intraday high of 4,504.06 points and an intraday low of 4,453.01 points. The volume stood at 88.726 million shares. BRIndex30 decreased by 354.03 points to 22,278.17 points with total volume of 55.338 million shares.
The benchmark KSE-100 index declined by 274.19 points to 41,126.83 points. Trading activity remained low as daily volumes on the ready counter decreased to 94.949 million shares as compared to 140.784 million shares traded Friday. Foreign investors remained net sellers of shares worth $0.2 million. The market capitalization declined by Rs 59 billion to Rs 8.639 trillion. Out of total 374 active scrips, 259 closed in negative, only 93 in positive while the value of 22 stocks remained unchanged.
TRG Pak was the volume leader with 11.110 million shares. However, it declined by Rs 1.71 to close at Rs 38.09 followed by Jahangir Siddiqui and Co that increased by Rs 1.04 to close at Rs 22.01 with 7.353 million shares. Khyber Tobacco and ICI Pakistan were the top gainers with Rs 22.98 and Rs 21.11, respectively to close at Rs 892.95 and Rs 896.17. Colgate Palmolive and Bhanero Textile were the top losers with Rs 99.00 and Rs 40.61, respectively to close at Rs 2,300.00 and Rs 771.64. BR Commercial Banks Index closed at 7,847.00 points, down 7.01 points or 0.09 percent with a total turnover of 10.683 million shares.
BR Cement Index declined by 100.31 points or 1.62 percent to close at 6,080.26 points with total turnover of 6.251 million shares. BR Oil and Gas Index lost 64.1 points or 1.32 percent to close at 4,785.61 points with total turnover of 5.624 million shares. BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 1,230.16 points, down 27.86 points or 2.21 percent with 12.707 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index lost 30.1 points or 0.44 percent to close at 6,740.01 points with total turnover of 2.599 million shares. Maaz Mulla at JS Global Capital said another lackluster session was witnessed, as market closed at 41,127 level, 274 points negative after making an intraday high of plus 151 points. There wasn't much exchange in the market even though many value stocks announced their financial results including APL (down 3.02 percent), NRL (down 4.80 percent), POL (down 3.12 percent) and ATRL (down 0.77 percent). Market opened positive as HBL (up 5.0 percent) opened at its upper circuit after the news that it had paid off its penalty of $225 million through foreign loans.