Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed a bearish trend due to selling in various sectors. BRIndex100 lost 29.47 points or 0.64 percent to close at 4,541.72 points Thursday. BRIndex100 touched intraday high of 4,572.14 and intraday low of 4,530.44 points. Volumes stood at 105.238 million shares. BRIndex30 decreased by 180.4 points or 0.79 percent to close at 22,773.25 points with a turnover of 45.676 million shares.
The benchmark KSE-100 index declined by 236.09 points to close at 42,536.16 points. Daily trading volumes decreased to 127.171 million shares as compared to 131.332 million shares traded Wednesday. Foreign investors remained net sellers of shares worth $8 million. The market capitalization declined by Rs 35 billion to Rs 8.828 trillion. Out of total 337 active scrips, 198 closed in negative, 111 in positive while the value of 28 stocks remained unchanged.
Faysal Bank was the volume leader with 11.921 million shares. It gained Re 0.71 to close at Rs 24.70 followed by First Dawood Bank that increased by Re 0.60 to close at Rs 4.76 with 10.978 million shares. Unilever Foods and Philip Morris were the top gainers with Rs 381.00 and Rs 99.57, respectively to close at Rs 8,379.00 and Rs 2,999.57. Rafhan Maize and Colgate Palmolive were the top losers with Rs 200.00 and Rs 150.00, respectively to close at Rs 8,000.00 and Rs 2,850.00.
BR Commercial Banks Index lost 17.45 points or 0.2 percent to close at 8,604.84 points with total turnover of 29.831 million shares. BR Cement Index declined by 89.65 points or 1.71 percent to close at 5,144.83 points with 5.462 million shares. BR Oil and Gas Index decreased by 23.83 points or 0.44 percent to close at 5,363.12 points with 3.284 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index closed at 1,107.29 points, down 7.22 points or 0.65 percent with 9.598 million shares. BR Power Generation and Distribution Index plunged by 22.48 points or 0.36 percent to close at 6,299.51 points with 6.499 million shares. An analyst at Topline Securities said after gaining around 66 points during the session market eventually slipped in red zone, where it lost around 325 points intraday to close at index level of 42,536 points, down 236 points.
The market activity couldn''t pick its pace during the day as investors are getting no updates/plans on lingering political and economical issues. Rising current account deficit, depleting foreign reserves, ongoing sessions in Bangkok related to FATF and inconclusive meeting between opposition leader and PM over selection of caretaker PM are hammering investor''s sentiments. "We opine, resolution of these is utmost important for rebuilding of local/foreign investors confidence in Pakistani equities," he said.