KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange Thursday witnessed selling pressure and closed in negative zone as the investors opted to book profit on available margins.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index plunged by 635.66 points or 1.43 percent to close below 44,000 level at 43,731.20 points. Trading activity are remained low as daily volumes on ready counter decreased to 312.071 million shares as compared to 398.094 million shares traded Wednesday.

BRIndex100 declined by 64.48 points or 1.42 percent to close at 4,483.11 points with total daily turnover of 277.974 million shares.

BRIndex30 decreased by 155.63 points or 0.84 percent to close at 18,470.79 points with total daily trading volumes of 206.846 million shares.

The market capitalization declined by Rs 110 billion to Rs 7.499 trillion. Out of total 345 active scrips, 248 closed in negative and only 86 in positive while the value of 11 stocks remained unchanged.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 49.185 million shares and closed at Rs 2.21, up Rs 0.01 followed by Telecard Limited that inched up by Rs 0.97 to close at Rs 15.75 with 30.929 million shares.

Blessed Textile and Mari Petroleum were the top gainers increasing by Rs 31.21 and Rs 17.26 respectively to close at Rs 447.46 and Rs 1673.72 while Unilever Foods and Rafhan Maize were the top losers declining by Rs 949.99 and Rs 300.00 respectively to close at Rs 19000.00 and Rs 9500.00.

An analyst at Topline Securities said that during the session, profit-taking was witnessed as the benchmark KSE-100 Index settled at 43,731 level, down 1.43 percent.

In the opening session, the market opened on a negative note following Wednesday’s T-bills auction where cutoffs yields remained flat contrary to investor’s expectations. Investors were expecting a cut following fall in secondary market yields by 25bps on Wednesday. This led the market to make an intraday low of 759 points.

Financial, Cements and E&Ps sectors were the major laggards in the trading session where HBL, LUCK, MCB, PPL and UBL cumulatively dented the Index by 231 points.

BR Automobile Assembler Index decreased by 101.95 points or 1.21 percent to close at 8,344.95 points with total turnover of 2.373 million shares.

BR Cement Index plunged by 163.32 points or 2.86 percent to close at 5,556.23 points with 20.492 million shares.

BR Commercial Banks Index declined by 184.27 points or 1.88 percent to close at 9,638.65 points with 14.828 million shares.

BR Power Generation and Distribution Index fell by 61.41 points or 1.12 percent to close at 5,413.29 points with 6.217 million shares.

BR Oil and Gas Index lost 66.88 points or 1.75 percent to close at 3,749.50 points with 14.311 million shares.

BR Tech. & Comm. Index gained 8.84 points or 0.22 percent to close at 3,984.60 points with 119.443 million shares.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021