Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) Tuesday closed lower, weighed mainly by profit taking in select scrips across-the-board. BRIndex100 declined by 8.12 points or 0.2 percent to close at 4,094.56 points compared to previous 4,102.68 points. It touched intraday high of 4,173.46 points and intraday low of 4,081.28 points. Volume stood at 211.301 million shares. Maple Leaf was the most traded company with a volume of 20.92 million shares.
BRIndex30 opened at 20,495.44 points. It touched intraday high of 20,932.57 points and intraday low of 20,468.56 points to close at 20,554.18 points which was 58.74 points or 0.29 percent higher than previous close. Volume stood at 172.653 shares.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index closed at 39,200, down by 97points or 0.25 percent. Bulls dominated the early hours on the PSX as the benchmark KSE-100 Index touched intraday high of 570 points. However, the index took a turn where profit booking was witnessed across-the-board leading to an intraday low of -239 points and hence a loss of 97 points.
Out of total 361 active scrips, some 167 closed positive, 176 negative while the value of 18 stocks remained unchanged. Trading volume stood at 225 million shares against 215 million Monday. The market capitalization declined by Rs 3 billion to Rs 7.299 trillion.
Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib said that stocks closed lower amid profit taking in select scrips across-the-board on investor concerns over high CPI inflation in Feb'20 and Moody's statement on presence in FATF grey list credit negative for Pakistan banks.
He said that support was witnessed in textile and oil stocks on surging exports data for Feb'20 and higher global crude oil prices. Foreign outflows and concerns over likely delays in privatisation of SOEs played a catalytic role in bearish close, he added.
Cement sector again led the traded volumes with 63.2 million shares, followed by O&GMCs 26.5 million shares and technology 22.7 million shares. Among scrips, MLCF topped the chart with 20.9 million shares, followed by UNITY 20.5 million shares and HASCOL 19.1 million.
Pak Tobacco and Sanofi-Aventis were the top gainers with Rs 46.99 and Rs 45.36 to close at Rs 1,746.99 and Rs 693.36, respectively. Phillip Morris Pak and Unilever Foods were the top losers with Rs 169.96 and Rs 90.00 to Rs 2,258.04and Rs 7,310.00, respectively.
BR Automobile Assembler Index closed at 5,704.86 points with a net negative change of -93.51 points or a percentage change of -1.61 and a turnover of 1,474,280.
BR Cement Index closed at 4,043.88 points with a net positive change of 1.35 points or a percentage change of 0.03 and a turnover of 63,286,500. BR Commercial Banks Index closed at 9,439.20 points with a net negative change of -28.81 points or a percentage change of -0.3 and a turnover of 15,633,200.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index closed at 5,216.56 points with a net negative change of -76.98 points or a percentage change of -1.45 and a turnover of 7,153,500. BR Oil and Gas Index closed at 4,171.83 points with a net positive change of 41.55 points or a percentage change of 1.01 and a turnover of 32,995,280. BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 992.30 points with a net positive change of 28.25 points or a percentage change of 2.93 and a turnover of 22,742,600.