KARACHI: Despite foreign buying, Pakistan Stock Exchange on Tuesday witnessed bearish trend and closed on negative note due to continuous selling by local investors in various sectors. BRIndex100 decreased by 49.67 points or 1.05 percent to close at 4,687.95 points. During the session, the BRIndex100 hit intraday high of 4,751.74 points and intraday low of 4,684.50 points. Total volumes stood at 297.383 million shares.

BRIndex30 plunged by 593.89 points or 2.58 percent to close at 22,387.38 points with total daily turnover of 191.430 million shares.

KSE-100 Index declined by 377.93 points or 0.84 percent and closed below 45,000 level at 44,666.57 points. Daily trading volumes on ready counter increased to 334.689 million shares as compared to 267.219 million shares traded on Monday.

The foreign investors however remained net buyers of shares worth $2.783 million. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 42 billion to Rs 7.804 trillion. Out of total 564 active scrips, 342 closed in negative and 211 in positive while the value of 11 stocks remained unchanged.

Telecard Limited was the volume leader with 30.365 million shares and gained Re 0.76 to close at Rs 19.96 followed by Azgard Nine that declined by Rs 1.27 to close at Rs 20.12 with 19.557 million shares. Mari Petroleum and Pak Services were the top gainers increasing by Rs 116.79 and Rs 26.24 respectively to close at Rs 1681.36 and Rs 1496.24 while Sapphire Textile and Gatron Industries were the top losers declining by Rs 71.25 and Rs 35.00 respectively to close at Rs 900.00 and Rs 435.00.

BR Automobile Assembler Index decreased by 50.27 points or 0.57 percent to close at 8,703.75 points with total turnover of 3.763 million shares.

BR Cement Index plunged by 230 points or 3.93 percent to close at 5,625.32 points with 26.539 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index lost 27.25 points or 0.29 percent to close at 9,329.26 points with 15.490 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index gained 8.44 points or 0.15 percent to close at 5,505.90 points with 6.907 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index inched up by 10.36 points or 0.28 percent to close at 3,737.19 points with 12.024 million shares. BR Tech & Comm Index declined by 150.74 points or 3.11 percent to close at 4,690.64 points with 85.001 million shares.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that stocks closed lower on global equity selloff and investor concerns for reports of over 100 percent surge in trade deficit to $11.664 billion during July-September 2021.

He said dismal data on cement sales falling by six percent in July-September 2021, surge in industrial power tariff, weak rupee and over leveraging played a catalyst role in bearish close.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021