The foreign investors remained net sellers of equities worth $2.5 million. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 91 billion to stand at Rs 7.203 trillion. Out of total 348 active scrips, 251 closed in negative and only 80 in positive while the value of 17 stocks remained unchanged.
Unity Foods was the volume leader with 29.780 million shares however lost Re 0.10 to close at Rs 13.45 followed by Hascol Petroleum that lost Re 0.90 to close at Rs 20.17 with 10.380 million shares. Rafhan Maize and Wyeth Pak were the top gainers increasing by Rs 188.88 and Rs 52.95 respectively to close at Rs 6999.88 and Rs 867.70 while Pak Tobacco and Bata Pak were the top losers declining by Rs 116.34 and Rs 39.99 respectively to close at Rs 1673.52 and Rs 1760.00.
BR Automobile Assembler Index lost 40.69 points or 0.71 percent to close at 5,717.59 points with total turnover of 1.855 million shares. BR Cement Index fell by 39.67 points or 1.07 percent to close at 3,678.28 points with 15.958 million shares.
BR Commercial Banks Index decreased by 67.77 points or 0.72 percent to close at 9,342.54 points with 14.987 million shares. BR Power Generation and Distribution Index declined by 126.42 points or 2.37 percent to close at 5,200.53 points with 7.340 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index shed 55.52 points or 1.32 percent to close at 4,149.43 points with 21.308 million shares. BR Tech & Comm. Index closed at 929.24 points, down 18.34 points or 1.94 percent with 12.933 million shares.
Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that bearish trend continued at PSX amid foreign outflows, dismal data on trade deficit for January 2020 and concerns over reports on delays in privatization of SOEs on global equity selloff. He said slump in global equities, uncertainty over outcome of FATF decisions and falling global crude oil prices played a catalyst role in bearish close.