PSX stays bearish

Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed a bearish trend Monday. The benchmark KSE-100 index declined by 446.59 points to close at 48.929.12 points. Trading activity also remained low as trading volumes on the ready counter decreased to 344.287 million shares as compared to 373.303 million shares traded last Friday. The market capitalisation declined by Rs 69 billion to Rs 9.729 trillion.
Out of total 433 active scrips, 300 closed in negative, 120 in positive while value of 13 stocks remained unchanged. Power Cement was the volume leader with 26.232 million shares. However, the scrip lost Rs 1.14 to close at Rs 21.69 followed by Sui Southern Gas Company that increased by 1.76 to close at Rs 41.93 with 21.353 million shares. K-Electric closed at Rs 9.78, down Rs 0.21 with 17.921 million shares.
Bata Pak and Millat Tractors were top gainers with Rs 150.00 and Rs 55.27, respectively to close at Rs 4,100.00 and Rs 1,160.68. Wyeth Pak and Sapphire Fiber were top losers with Rs 73.40 and Rs 52.00, respectively to close at Rs 4,147.83 and Rs 1,040.00.
Zeeshan Afzal at Insight Securities said that beginning of future's rollover week didn't prove to be a good omen for the market, as outstanding positions in the February's future contract had a toll on the index. Future's accounted for almost 33 percent of the traded value, while activity in the regular market dropped significantly overall traded value didn't reflect the true picture as futures made up the lost volumes to some extent. Security issues and panama hearings remained another factor for the trouble, leading PSX to close below 49,000 level.
Nabeel Haroon at JS Global Capital said that volatility prevailed in the market during the first half of the trading session; whereas heavy profit taking was witnessed in the market during the second half of the day as the index lost 447 points to close at 48,929 level. Banking sector however closed higher, as the sector heavy weights HBL (up 1.2 percent) and UBL (up 1.5 percent) gained to close in the green zone. Profit taking to some extent was witnessed in the cement sector, as sector heavyweights DGKC (down 2.0 percent), MLCF (down 2.7 percent), LUCK (down 0.3 percent) and POWER (down 5.0 percent) lost value to close in the red zone. NML (down 4.4 percent) in the textile sector lost value to close in the red zone as the company declared its first half of FY17 result. HUBC (down 2.0 percent) in the power sector lost value to close in the red zone as the company declared its first half of FY17 result.