A bearish trend continued on Pakistan Stock Exchange Wednesday due to selling by both local and foreign investors. BRIndex100 lost 34.13 points or 0.83 percent to close at 4,060.43 points. BRIndex100 touched intraday high of 4,105.89 and intraday low of 4,047.28 points. Volumes stood at 174.131 million shares.

BRIndex30 declined by 314.6 points or 1.53 percent to close at 20,239.58 points with total turnover of 140.078 million shares. The KSE-100 Index plunged by 293.28 points or 0.75 percent to close at 38,906.40 points. Trading activity remained dull as daily volumes on the ready counter decreased to 186.985 million shares as compared to 225.275 million shares traded Tuesday.

Foreign investors remained net sellers of shares worth $3.8 million. The market capitalization declined by Rs 40 billion to Rs 7.259 trillion. Out of total 347 active scrips, 211 closed in negative, 118 in positive while the value of 18 stocks remained unchanged.

Maple Leaf was the volume leader with 23.360 million shares. It gained Re 0.21 to close at Rs 26.61 followed by Hascol Petroleum that lost Re 0.21 to close at Rs 20.52 with 19.240 million shares. Colgate Palmolive and Unilever Foods were the top gainers with Rs 129.99 and Rs 90.00, respectively to close at Rs 2,249.99 and Rs 7,400.00. Philip Morris Pak and Bhanero Textile were the top losers with Rs 158.04 and Rs 69.99, respectively to close at Rs 2,100.00 and Rs 930.00.

BR Automobile Assembler Index decreased by 80.01 points or 1.4 percent to close at 5,624.85 points with total turnover of 738,950 shares. BR Cement Index shed 57.59 points or 1.42 percent to close at 4,101.47 points with 71.322 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index lost 17.12 points or 0.18 percent to close at 9,422.08 points with 23.095 million shares. BR Power Generation and Distribution Index declined by 103 points or 1.97 percent to close at 5,113.56 points with 6.462 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index plunged by 77.71 points or 1.86 percent to close at 4,094.12 points with 24.270 million shares. BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 970.50 points, down 21.8 points or 2.2 percent with 8.942 million shares. An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market continued to slide with another drawdown of 437 points during the session. By the close of session, index recovered somewhat but ended down 293 points.

Other than Cement and Steel sector scrips, all the other sectors sustained losses. News related to Naya Pakistan Housing Scheme, higher PSDP utilization and indication of relaxation from IMF on fiscal targets kept Investors' interest alive, preferring cyclical stocks over index heavy weights like HBL, UBL, ENGRO, HUBC, FFC, OGDC and PPL. Oil and gas chain disregarded the hike in international crude prices and had muted interest from investors.

Cement sector remained in the limelight with 71.3 million shares, followed by Banks (23.1 million shares) and O&GMCs (21.7 million shares). Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P (down 107 points), Power (down 53 points), Fertilizer (down 45 points), O&GMCs (down 26 points), Inv Banks (down 20 points) and Cement (up 38 points).

Stocks that contributed positively include MCB (up 20 points), FFC (up 20 points), COLG (up 16 points), PAKT (up 13 points) and UBL (up 12 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include ENGRO (down 46 points), HUBC (down 45 points), OGDC (down 43 points), PPL (down 33 points) and MEBL (down 20 points).