Bearish trend continued on Pakistan Stock Exchange due to panic selling on investors concerns over geopolitical situation. BRIndex100 lost 64.88 points or 2.06 percent to close at 3,084.61 points on Thursday. During the session, the BRIndex-100 touched an intraday high of 3,141.50 and an intraday low of 3,048.82 points. Total volumes stood at 101.948 million shares.
BRIndex30 decreased by 299.12 points or 1.87 percent to close at 15,718.81 points with total turnover of 65.941 million shares. KSE-100 Index declined by 539.47 points or 1.78 percent and closed below 30,000 crucial level at 29,737.98 points. Due to selling pressure, daily volumes on ready counter increased to 109.097 million shares as compared to 65.294 million shares traded on Wednesday.
The foreign investors however remained net buyers of shares worth $0.5 million. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 74 billion to Rs 6.049 trillion. Out of total 338 active scrips, 238 closed in negative and only 76 in positive while the value of 24 stocks remained unchanged.
K-Electric was the volume leader with 10.321 million shares however lost Re 0.11 to close at Rs 3.04 followed by Unity Foods that declined by Re 0.60 to close at Rs 7.74 with 7.769 million shares. Nestle Pakistan and Wyeth Pak were the top gainers increasing by Rs 285.59 and Rs 22.00 respectively to close at Rs 6013.00 and Rs 572.00 while Unilever Foods and Indus Motor Co were the top losers declining by Rs 280.00 and Rs 25.71 respectively to close at Rs 5320.00 and Rs 1009.23.
BR Automobile Assembler Index declined by 133.95 points or 2.7 percent to close at 4,824.07 points with total turnover of 850,890 shares.
BR Cement Index decreased by 51.99 points or 1.96 percent to close at 2,595.13 points with 15.231 million shares. BR Commercial Banks Index plunged by 185.2 points or 2.54 percent to close at 7,092.93 points with 13.550 million shares. BR Power Generation and Distribution Index fell by 116.83 points or 2.85 percent to close at 3,986.91 points with 14.070 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index closed at 3,359.39 points, down 90.91 points or 2.63 percent with 11.446 million shares. BR Tech & Comm Index lost 6.31 points or 0.98 percent to close at 634.95 points with 4.944 million shares. Maaz Mulla at JS Global Capital said the Pakistan equities plunged with the KSE-100 Index shedding 539 points, closing at 29,738 levels, down 1.8 percent. Selling pressure continued at the local bourse from mutual funds on the back of geopolitical unrest. The market once again succumbed to this ongoing political compression over Kashmir issue. Moreover, on the political front Maryam Nawaz, leader of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and daughter of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, was arrested by NAB over corruption charges.
Energy stocks were the major laggards where OGDC (down 3.2 percent), PPL (down 2.4 percent) and POL (down 5.0 percent) closed near limit down as the international oil prices slipped as concerns over the demand outlook increased over the escalation in the prolonged Sino-U.S. trade war. Moreover, Financials also came under the gun where HBL (down 3.0 percent), MCB (down 3.6 percent) and UBL (down 2.9 percent) closed in the red. Engro Fertilizer (EFERT) (up 3.0 percent) from the Fertilizer sector, announced its 1H CY19 EPS of Rs 5.38/share against Rs 5.35/share in the same period last year with a DPS Rs 5/share. Engro Corporation (ENGRO) (down 2.2 percent) was the major loser in the aforementioned sector.
In the Cement sector, LUCK (down 3.1 percent) was the major laggard whereas, FCCL (up 0.4 percent), DGKC (up 0.7 percent) and MLCF (up 1.5 percent) closed in the green zone.