Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed bearish trend on the first day of the week due to selling in various sectors.
BRIndex100 lost 11.33 points or 0.26 percent to close at 4,373.76 points on Monday. During the session, the BRIndex-100 touched an intraday high of 4,388.99 and an intraday low of 4,348.67 points. Total volumes stood at 100.091 million shares.
BRIndex30 decreased by 110.84 points or 0.52 percent to close at 21,375.56 points with total turnover of 75.789 million shares.
Pakistan's benchmark KSE-100 index declined by 69.15 points or 0.17 percent and closed at 40,929.44 points. Trading activities remained low as daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 106.259 million shares as compared to 145.910 million shares traded on previous session.
The foreign investors remained net sellers of equities worth $2.9 million. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 5 billion to Rs 8.397 trillion. Out of total 366 active scrips, 222 closed in negative and 117 in positive while the value of 27 stocks remained unchanged.
Bank of Punjab was the volume leader with 21.173 million shares however lost Re 0.04 to close at Rs 11.79 followed by Unity Foods that gained Re 0.56 to close at Rs 31.99 with 14.904 million shares. Rafhan Maize and Island Textile were the top gainers increasing by Rs 349.00 and Rs 79.55 respectively to close at Rs 7569.00 and Rs 1705.99 while Unilever Foods and Colgate Palmolive were the top losers declining by Rs 365.00 and Rs 99.89 respectively to close at Rs 6935.00 and Rs 2300.11.
BR Commercial Banks Index increased by 52.95 points or 0.61 percent to close at 8,703.87 points with total turnover of 28.790 million shares.
BR Cement Index decreased by 38.56 points or 0.86 percent to close at 4,442.22 points with 7.843 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index lost 7.14 points or 0.14 percent to close at 5,244.93 points with 1.903 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index gained 3.68 points or 0.32 percent to close at 1,167.49 points with 4.946 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index declined by 65.59 points or 1.15 percent to close at 5,649.74 points with 2.393 million shares.
Maaz Mulla at JS Global Capital said that the PSX closed its index down at 40,929 levels as the index made an intraday high of plus 30 and a low of minus 289 points. The market started on a negative note traded alongside and came under the duress on the negative trajectory.
On the economic front, The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has increased the policy rate by 100bps to 8.5 percent, making a total of 275bps since Jan-2018, in an attempt to address relentless economic concerns due to rising inflation, twin deficits and pressures from global developments i.e. trade wars and increasing international oil prices.
Cements and E&Ps pulled the market down where LUCK (down 1.12 percent), DGKC (down 1.75 percent), POL (down 0.20 percent) and OGDC (down 0.69 percent) closed in the red zone. However, it seems that the hike in the interest rate didn't show much of an episode in the Financials as mixed sentiment was seen, where MCB (down 0.17 percent) and UBL (down 0.35 percent) closed negative but HBL (up 0.29 percent) closed slight positive.