A bearish trend continued on Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) and the benchmark KSE-100 index lost another 293.53 points to close at 46,699.78 points Thursday. Trading activity also remained low as the trading volumes at the ready counter decreased to 270.429 million shares as compared to 388.567 million shares traded Wednesday. The market capitalisation declined by Rs 41 billion to stand at Rs 9.312 trillion. Out of the total 404 active scrips, 255 closed in negative, 128 in positive while the value of 21 stocks remained unchanged.
Pakistan International Bulk Terminal was the volume leader with 35.245 million shares, however it lost Rs 1.85 to close at Rs 35.18 followed by Dost Steels that closed at Rs 10.76, down Rs 0.01 with 16.832 million shares. Engro Polymer increased by Rs 0.31 to close at Rs 17.52 with 15.637 million shares.
Pak Tobacco and Siemens Pak were the top gainers with Rs 50.05 and Rs 41.41, respectively to close at Rs 1115.05 and Rs 1540.33. Wyeth Pak and Bata Pak were the top losers declining by Rs 76.73 and Rs 75.00, respectively to close at Rs 4654.44 and Rs 4555.00. Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that the stocks closed bearish amid institutional profit-taking on concerns for dismal data on current account deficit and foreign outflows. The oil stocks battered after dip in WTI crude prices. He said that weak exports, likely rise in local POL prices and uncertainty over pricing of the strategic sale of PSX impacted the sentiment.