Profit-taking sets in on PSX: BRIndex100 retreats

Pakistan Stock Exchange Wednesday witnessed a negative trend as investors opted to book profit.

BRIndex100 lost 29.49 points or 0.84 percent to close at 3,480.98 points. BRIndex100 hit intraday high of 3,515.28 and intraday low of 3,465.59 points. Volumes stood at 135.757 million shares.

BRIndex30 decreased by 132.27 points or 0.71 percent to close at 18,391.16 points with a turnover of 88.556 million shares.

The KSE-100 Index declined by 225.74 points or 0.66 percent to close at 33,932.81 points. Trading activity remained thin as daily volumes on the ready counter decreased to 165.101 million shares as compared to 247.798 million shares traded Tuesday.

Foreign investors remained net sellers of shares worth $0.2 million. The market capitalization declined by Rs 31 billion to Rs 6.468 trillion. Out of total 344 active scrips, 212 closed in negative and 120 in positive while the value of 12 stocks remained unchanged.

Hum Network was the volume leader with 11.731 million shares however lost Rs 1.00 to close at Rs 9.61 followed by Hascol Petroleum that closed at Rs 14.80, down Rs 0.27 with 11.299 million shares. Pak Tobacco and Pak Services were the top gainers increasing by Rs 39.50 and Rs 39.34 respectively to close at Rs 1639.50 and Rs 1000.00 while Sanofi-Aventis and Sapphire Fiber were the top losers declining by Rs 51.75 and Rs 44.99 respectively to close at Rs 967.39 and Rs 650.01.

BR Automobile Assembler Index surged by 143.07 points or 2.54 percent to close at 5,778.03 points with total turnover of 7.404 million shares.

BR Cement Index gained 11.78 points or 0.28 percent to close at 4,179.22 points with 25.141 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index lost 42.06 points or 0.64 percent to close at 6,544.35 points with 9.853 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index inched up by 6.65 percent to close at 4,478.01 points with 9.597 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index decreased by 48.14 points or 1.3 percent to close at 3,645.76 points with 24.547 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 1,141.39 points, down 27.45 points or 2.35 percent with 28.173 million shares.

Maaz Mulla at JS Global Capital said that the bulls lost control in the trading session as profit booking was witnessed across the board where the index made an intraday low of minus 372 points to close at 33,933 level, down 226 points.

Major movers of the day which dragged the market in the red trajectory were PPL (down 2.0 percent), FFC (down 1.6 percent), ENGRO (down 1.4 percent), POL (down 1.8 percent), MARI (down 1.8 percent), SEARL (down 3.8 percent) and DAWH (down 2.5 percent).

Profit booking was witnessed in the Pharma sector where SEARL (down 3.8 percent), FEROZ (down 7.5 percent) and AGP (down 4.5 percent) closed lower than their previous day close.