Despite foreign buying, Pakistan Stock Exchange plunged in deep red on the first day of the week due to selling by local investors. BRIndex100 lost 39.5 points or 1.05 percent to close at 3,717.45 points on Monday. BRIndex100 touched intraday high of 3,788.78 and intraday low of 3,713.70 points. Volumes stood at 64.037 million shares.
BRIndex30 decreased by 315.17 points or 1.62 percent to close at 19,183.96 points with total turnover of 46.936 million shares. The KSE-100 index declined by 517.53 points or 1.43 percent to close at three-year low at 35,605.42 points. Daily trading volumes on the ready counter slightly improved to 71.418 million shares as compared to 64.335 million shares traded Friday.
Foreign investors emerged net buyers of equities worth $4.5 million. The market capitalization declined by Rs 82 billion to Rs 7.289 trillion. Out of total 329 active scrips, 250 closed in negative, only 60 in positive while the value of 19 stocks remained unchanged.
Maple Leaf was the volume leader with 6.438 million shares. However, it lost Rs 1.33 to close at Rs 26.49 followed by Bank of Punjab that declined by Re 0.21 to close at Rs 11.92 with 5.696 million shares.
Colgate Palmolive and Agriautos Ind were the top gainers with Rs 99.00 and Rs 11.12, respectively to close at Rs 2,097.00 and Rs 233.88. Sapphire Fiber and Siemens Pak were the top losers with Rs 35.17 and Rs 23.00, respectively to close at Rs 668.33 and Rs 680.00. BR Commercial Banks Index decreased by 89.61 points or 1.09 percent to close at 8,163.55 points with total turnover of 11.665 million shares. BR Cement Index declined by 95.06 points or 2.83 percent to close at 3,265.26 points with 14.755 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index closed at 4,251.80 points, down 77.15 points or 1.78 percent with 4.340 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index lost 4.41 points or 0.51 percent to close at 857.89 points with 3.816 million shares. BR Power Generation and Distribution Index plunged by 90.82 points or 1.81 percent to close at 4,926.06 points with 2.884 million shares.
Maaz Mulla at JS Global Capital said that the market slid amid lack of positive triggers where the PSX index made an intraday low of minus 553 points to close at 35,605 levels, down 517 points.
Major heavyweights namely, PPL (down 3.0 percent), LUCK (down 4.2 percent), ENGRO (down 2.2 percent), UBL (down 2.4 percent) and HUBC (down 2.3 percent) dragged the index down. Cement sector came under the hammering where LUCK (down 4.2 percent), CHCC (down 4.7 percent), MLCF (down 4.8 percent), DGKC (down 2.7 percent) and PIOC (down 3.3 percent) lost value to close in the red zone. PPL (down 3.0 percent), POL (down 2.6 percent) and OGDC (down 1.0 percent) from the E&P sector closed lower than their previous day close as prices of crude oil dropped in the international market.