PSX remains lacklustre: BRIndex100 edges down

Pakistan Stock Exchange Thursday opened on a positive note, however remained volatile throughout the day due to investors' lack of interest.

BRIndex100 lost 23.83 points or 0.56 percent to close at 4,252.46 points. BRIndex100 touched intraday high of 4,309.55 and intraday low of 4,249.88 points. Volumes stood at 114.016 million shares.

BRIndex30 decreased by 287.68 points or 1.29 percent to close at 21,970.56 points with a turnover of 81.601 million shares.

The KSE-100 Index declined by 159.84 points or 0.39 percent to close at 40,724.40 points. Trading activity remained very thin as daily volumes on the ready counter decreased to 127.803 million shares as compared to 146.091 million shares traded Tuesday.

Foreign investors remained net sellers of shares worth $7.4 million. The market capitalization declined by Rs 26 billion to Rs 7.671 trillion. Out of total 349 active scrips, 194 closed in negative,137 in positive while the value of 18 stocks remained unchanged. Hascol Petroleum was the volume leader with 11.323 million shares. However, it declined by Rs 1.51 to close at Rs 24.18 followed by Lotte Chemical that increased by Re 1.00 to close at Rs 14.82 with 8.972 million shares.

Sapphire Fiber and Pak Tobacco were the top gainers with Rs 44.89 and Rs 40.00, respectively to close at Rs 793.20 and Rs 2,040.00. Service Ind Limited and J.D.W. Sugar were the top losers with Rs 30.90 and Rs 19.74, respectively to close at Rs 900.05 and Rs 309.27.

BR Automobile Assembler Index shed 33.02 points or 0.55 percent to close at 5,994.06 points with total turnover of 640,470 shares.

BR Cement Index lost 11.93 points or 0.31 percent to close at 3,784.17 points with 17.000 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index closed at 9,735.69 points, down 3.91 points or 0.04 percent with 17.857 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index declined by 115.29 points or 2.03 percent to close at 5,569.09 points with 4.169 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index decreased by 48.44 points or 1.05 percent to close at 4,543.14 points with 20.837 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index fell by 3.81 points or 0.36 percent to close at 1,055.45 points with 12.398 million shares.

Danish Ladhani at JS Global Capital said that the Pakistan equities closed on a negative note. The market remained lackluster in the trading session on the back of news that the IMF has asked Pakistan to take more measures to raise additional tax in the mini-budget amid lower-than-expected receipts against Rs 735 billion budgetary measures.

HUBC (down 2.9 percent), MCB (down 2.0 percent), OGDC (down 1.6 percent), PPL (down 1.2 percent), PSO (down 2.3 percent) and UBL (down 0.4 percent) cumulatively contributed minus 183 points towards the negative index close.