Stocks stay depressed

KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Friday remained under pressure and closed on a negative note due to selling in various sectors on investor concerns over prevailing economic situation in the country.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index declined by 123.06 points or 0.28 percent to close at 43,395.78 points. Trading activity remained thin as daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 179.172 million shares as compared to 200.494 million shares traded Thursday.

BRIndex100 lost 21.13 points or 0.48 percent to close at 4,418.96 points with total daily turnover of 152.963 million shares.

BRIndex30 decreased by 75.48 points or 0.43 percent to close at 17,387.35 points with total daily trading volumes of 87.985 million shares.

The foreign investors also remained net sellers of shares worth $763,025. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 5 billion to Rs 7.454 trillion. Out of 324 active scrips, 183 closed in negative and 123 in positive while the value of 18 stocks remained unchanged.

TRG Pak was the volume leader with 14.620 million shares and increased by Rs 1.39 to close at Rs 96.44 followed by Treet Corp that lost Rs 0.28 to close at Rs 40.12 with 14.244 million shares.

Nestle Pakistan and Colgate Palmolive were the top gainers increasing by Rs 389.99 and Rs 40.00 respectively to close at Rs 5689.99 and Rs 2470.00 while Sapphire Textile and Gatron Industries were the top losers declining by Rs 74.40 and Rs 39.78 respectively to close at Rs 917.60 and Rs 490.77.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market continued to remain in the bearish zone due to concerns over economic outlook, further devaluation of Pak rupee and hawkish stance in the upcoming monetary policy. Activity remained dull.

In the first session, market opened on a bleak note and mostly cyclical stocks came under the knife whereas in the second session across the board selling was witnessed due to lack of any positive trigger.

Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P (down 37 points), Technology and Communication (down 33 points), Commercial Banks (down 33 points), Textile Composite (down 17 points) and Power (down 15 points).

BR Automobile Assembler Index lost 26.36 points or 0.32 percent to close at 8,325.80 points with total turnover of 1.193 million shares.

BR Cement Index inched down by 8.6 points or 0.16 percent to close at 5,251.82 points with 13.282 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index fell by 26.52 points or 0.27 percent to close at 9,879.47 points with 11.042 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index decreased by 34.16 points or 0.63 percent to close at 5,386.48 points with 5.463 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index closed at 3,766.76 points, down 25.21 points or 0.66 percent with 17.201 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index declined by 48.26 points or 1.26 percent to close at 3,779.11 points with 41.354 million shares.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021