BRIndex100 drops 26.36 points

Pakistan Stock Exchange Thursday witnessed a declining trend as the investors opted to book profit on available margins. BRIndex100 lost 26.36 points or 0.54 percent to close at 4,832.56 points. BRIndex100 touched intraday high of 4,869.79 and intraday low of 4,819.56 points. Volumes stood at 227.075 million shares. BRIndex30 decreased by 17.98 points or 0.07 percent to 24,994.90 points with a turnover of 159.808 million shares.
The benchmark KSE-100 index declined by 246.50 points to 44,816.71 points. Trading activity also remained low as daily volumes on the ready counter decreased to 245.726 million shares as compared to 339.671 million shares traded Wednesday. Foreign investors remained net sellers of shares worth $3.8 million. The market capitalization declined by Rs 34 billion to Rs 9.245 trillion. Out of total 374 active scrips, 195 closed in negative, 155 in positive while the value of 24 stocks remained unchanged.
Dost Steel was the volume leader with 24.772 million shares. It gained Re 0.66 to close at Rs 12.77 followed by Bank of Punjab that inched up by Re 0.27 to close at Rs 9.85 with 17.511 million shares. Colgate Palmolive and Khyber Tobacco were the top gainers with Rs 50.00 and Rs 39.52, respectively to close at Rs 2,800.00 and Rs 966.94. Nestle Pakistan and Indus Motor Co were the top losers with Rs 249.00 and Rs 47.99, respectively to close at Rs 11,850.00 and Rs 1,893.96.
BR Commercial Banks Index lost 35.63 points or 0.39 percent to close at 9,090.75 points with total turnover of 28.335 million shares. BR Cement Index decreased by 98.75 points or 1.54 percent to close at 6,294.98 points with 21.064 million shares. BR Oil and Gas Index closed at decreased by 27.59 points or 0.52 percent to close at 5,269.19 points with 13.583 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index gained 15.22 points or 1.28 percent to close at 1,201.81 points with 14.374 million shares. BR Power Generation and Distribution Index closed at 6,653.89 points, up 62.16 points or 0.94 percent with 15.921 million shares. Maaz Mulla at JS Global Capital said that the KSE-100 index remained volatile throughout the day, making an intraday high of plus 116 points to intraday low of minus 333 points, to finally close at 44,817 level, down 246 points.
Profit booking was seen in the market mainly due to investors'' concerns in the E&P sector. E&P sector led the decline in the local bourse where POL (down 4.64 percent) and OGDC (down 1.21 percent) lost value to close in the red zone, cumulatively contributing negative 90 points to the index. Selling pressure caused decline in the cement sector as well as heavyweights such as LUCK (down 1.62 percent), DGKC (down 0.59 percent) and PIOC (down 1.70 percent) decreased the most. Negative sentiments were witnessed in the banking space too where UBL (down 1.18 percent), HBL (down 0.98 percent), BAFL (down 0.80 percent), ABL (down 2.17 percent) lost value in the trading session.
Pharmaceutical sector closed positive on the back of the news that the government has approved increase in drug prices in line with inflation. As a result, FEROZ (up 5.0 percent), ABOT (up 3.21 percent) and SEARL (up 2.30 percent) increased in value in the trading session. INIL (down 0.86 percent) from the steel sector declared its first half of FY18 results, where the company posted an EPS of Rs 14.04 and announced a cash payout of Rs 2.0/share.