Stock investors opted to book profit on available margins, pushing Pakistan Stock Exchange towards red zone on the last day before Eid holidays. BRIndex100 lost 59.6 points or 1.58 percent to close at 3,717.91 points on Monday. BRIndex100 touched intraday high of 3,777.51 and intraday low of 3,712.66 points. Volumes stood at 121.392 million shares.
BRIndex30 decreased by 218.57 points or 1.15 percent to close at 18,825.49 points with a turnover of 97.681 million shares. The KSE-100 index declined by 469.50 points or 1.31 percent to close at 35,505.29 points. Trading activity also remained low as daily volumes on the ready counter decreased to 124.639 million shares as compared to 199.132 million shares traded last Thursday.
Foreign investors remained net sellers of shares worth $2.3 million. The market capitalization declined by Rs 93 billion to Rs 7.147 trillion. Out of total 301 active scrips, 179 closed in negative, 103 in positive while the value of 19 stocks remained unchanged.
Bank of Punjab was the volume leader with 25.481 million shares. However, it lost Re 0.53 to close at Rs 10.64 followed by WorldCall Telecom that gained Re 0.05 to close at Re 0.87 with 20.613 million shares. Bata Pak and Abbott Lab were the top gainers with Rs 68.18 and Rs 14.15, respectively to close at Rs 1,432.18 and Rs 487.14. Mari Petroleum and Pak Oilfields were the top losers with Rs 40.73 and Rs 22.24, respectively to close at Rs 1,102.97 and Rs 422.61.
BR Commercial Banks Index gained 8.41 points or 0.1 percent to close at 8,500.28 points with total turnover of 38.977 million shares. BR Cement Index declined by 72.83 points or 2.23 percent to close at 3,186.76 points with 17.602 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index plunged by 127.62 points or 2.94 percent to close at 4,217.77 points with 13.321 million shares. BR Tech. & Comm. Index lost 7.42 points or 0.95 percent to close at 772.44 points with 23.603 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index decreased by 54.22 points or 1.1 percent to close at 4,879.70 points with 4.655 million shares.
BR Automobile Assembler Index closed at 6,065.70 points, down 51.18 points or 0.84 percent with 922.630 million shares.
Maaz Mulla, an analyst at JS Global Capital said that local bourse kicked off on a negative note where the market nose-dived, making a low of negative 549 points.
E&Ps and Cements were the major laggards today where DGKC (down 4.6 percent), PIOC (down 4.1 percent) and FCCL (down 3.9 percent) were the major laggards whereas LUCK (down 2.6 percent) closed in the red as well.
Pressure was seen in the cements as the meeting of cement manufactures in the North ended without any consensus to increase the cement prices as were expected. OGDC (down 2.3 percent) and PPL (down 4.1 percent) ended negative whereas POL (down 5.0 percent) closed limit down as the International oil prices extended losses due to aggressive US trade policies.
Mixed sentiment was seen in the Commercial Banks where HBL (up 3.2 percent) and MCB (up 3.3 percent) closed in the green zone but UBL (down 0.5 percent) closed negative.