The KSE-100 Index declined by 343.13 points or 1.06 percent to close at 32,103.27 points. Daily trading volumes on the ready counter increased to 86.567 million shares as compared to 63.516 million shares traded Thursday. Foreign investors however remained net buyers of shares worth $0.7 million. The market capitalization declined by Rs 93 billion to Rs 6.464 trillion. Out of total 310 active scrips, 243 closed in negative, only 50 in positive while the value of 17 stocks remained unchanged.
Bank of Punjab was the volume leader with 23.848 million shares. It gained Re 0.17 to close at Rs 8.23 followed by WorldCall Telecom that lost Re 0.01 to close at Rs 0.59 with 7.246 million shares. Gatron Ind. and Sazgar Eng were the top gainers with Rs 9.39 and Rs 8.07, respectively to close at Rs 314.89 and Rs 188.93. Nestle Pakistan and Pak Tobacco were the top losers with Rs 306.74 and Rs 100.59, respectively to close at Rs 5,828.25 and Rs 2,399.40. BR Automobile Assembler Index declined by 64.31 points or 1.21 percent to close at 5,235.84 points with total turnover of 688,180 shares.
BR Cement Index plunged by 57.45 points or 2.03 percent to close at 2,777.05 points with 8.319 million shares. BR Commercial Banks Index lost 14.05 points or 0.18 percent to close at 7,892.80 points with 26.508 million shares. BR Power Generation and Distribution Index decreased by 74.48 points or 1.65 percent to close at 4,445.17 points with 4.383 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index closed at 3,706.14 points, down 35.78 points or 0.96 percent with 3.752 million shares. BR Tech. & Comm. Index fell 13.47 points or 1.98 percent to close at 666.74 points with 11.629 million shares. An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market continue slide down. E&P, Refinery, Cement, Autos, Steel and O&GMCs contributed to selling pressure. Only small and mid-cap Banks remained unscathed, where BOP topped the chart with 24 million shares out of a total of 26.5 million shares in Banking sector. Technology Sector followed Banks, in terms of volumes with 11.6 million shares. Cement Sector lagged behind Technology with 8.2 million shares, with DGKC at lower circuit and MLCF trading mostly in red zone.
Sectors contributing to the performance include Fertilizer (down 46 points), Power (down 40 points), Cement (down 38 points), E&P (down 31 points) and O&GMCs (down 30 points). Stocks that contributed positively include HMB (up 6 points), BOP (up 4 points), FABL (up 3 points), SYS (up 2 points) and SHEL (up 1 point). Stocks that contributed negatively include HUBC (down 31 points), PAKT (down 27 points), FFC (down 20 points), OGDC (down 18 points) and NESTLE (down 15 points).
Copyright Business Recorder, 2019