Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed declining trend due to selling in various sectors. BRIndex100 lost 34.93 points or 0.72 percent to close at 4,837.07 points on Wednesday. During the session the BRIndex100 touched an intraday high of 4,872.22 and an intraday low of 4,832.79 points. Total volumes stood at 95.893 million shares.
BRIndex30 decreased by 228.27 points or 0.92 percent to close at 24,453.40 points with total turnover of 63.179 million shares.
Pakistan's benchmark KSE-100 index declined by 292.49 points or 0.64 percent and closed at 45,196.37 points. Trading activities remained very thin as daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 131.211 million shares as compared to 248.565 million shares traded on previous session.
Total market capitalization declined by Rs 66 billion to Rs 9.320 trillion. Out of total 371 active scrips, 230 closed in negative and 120 in positive while the value of 21 stocks remained unchanged.
Lotte Chemical was the volume leader with 15.132 million shares and gained Re 0.39 to close at Rs 11.66 followed by Bank of Punjab that lost Re 0.25 to close at Rs 12.21 with 14.387 million shares. Colgate Palmolive and Island Textile were the top gainers increasing by Rs 148.30 and Rs 51.96 respectively to close at Rs 3114.30 and Rs 1091.20 while Rafhan Maize and Pak Tobacco were the top losers declining by Rs 150.00 and Rs 111.00 respectively to close at Rs 7750.00 and Rs 2235.00.
BR Commercial Banks Index decreased by 67.94 points or 0.74 percent to close at 9,086.70 points with total turnover of 29.726 million shares.
BR Cement Index plunged by 44.63 points or 0.77 percent to close at 5,766.88 points with 7.918 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index lost 30.96 points or 0.56 percent to close at 5,513.47 points with 2.647 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 1,214.41 points, down 11.69 points or 0.95 percent with 6.392 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index decreased by 13.51 points or 0.2 percent to close at 6,728.61 points with 1.678 million shares.
Maaz Mullah at JS Global Capital said that the KSE-100 index witnessed a choppy session, making an intraday low of minus 328 points, closing at 45,196 level, down 0.6 percent. The bearish trend in the trading session can be attributed to political uncertainty surrounding upcoming general elections continuing to haunt investors.
On the economic front, CPI inflation clocked in at 3.68 percent for April 2018 as compared to 3.25 percent last month.
Major heavyweights namely HBL (down 1.86 percent), UBL (down 2.05 percent), OGDC (down 0.97 percent), LUCK (down 1.19 percent) and ENGRO (down 1.00 percent) cumulatively contributed minus 155 points to the index. BYCO (down 1.20 percent), from the refinery sector, declared its result for nine month of FY18, where the company posted consolidated EPS of Rs 0.51, with no cash payout.
Selling pressure was witnessed in the banking sector where UBL (down 2.05 percent), HBL (down 1.86 percent) and NBP (down 0.20 percent) closed in the red zone. Mixed sentiments were witnessed in the cement sector where LUCK (down 1.19 percent) and DGKC (down 0.82 percent) closed negative, while on the flipside CHCC (down 1.22 percent) and FCCL (up 0.35 percent) closed positive.