KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed another bearish day as the benchmark KSE-100 Index lost 257 points to close at 45,461 points on Thursday.
After a slight surge that saw the index touch a day’s high of 45,781 points, it remained in the red for the rest of the day.
On political front, the local equities continued to extend losses for the third straight session after disqualification of Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif, giving a major blow to the government.
In all, 170.3 million shares worth Rs7.15 billion were traded at the exchange. Of the 413 traded scrips, 167 advanced while 226 declined and 20 remained unchanged. Commercial banks dominated trading with 24.5m shares traded while the chemical sector followed with 21.2m shares traded.
The stocks opened almost flat and gained only 22 points to reach 45741 level in early trading. The Pakistan Stock Exchange landed in negative zone till midday as the benchmark 100-index lost 97 points to drop to 45621 level.
Yesterday, stock market closed down 158 points or 0.35 percent as investors opted for profit-taking. Volumes during the day improved by 17 percent whereas value was down 5 percent as pressure was seen in selected index heavy weight stocks.
Cement sector remained the major loser withholding 47 points from the index on rumors of cut in cement prices per bag. E&P sector also dipped withdrawing 29 points from the index as international oil prices were down 1.5 percent.
EPCL and PAEL remained the volume leaders. EPCL rallied 2 percent on announcement of anti dumping duties on PVC. On the other hand, PAEL remained under pressure (down 4 percent) due to disappointing 1Q2018 financial result.
Top 5 scrips including HBL (-1 percent), PKGS (-5pc), COLG (-4.9pc), BAFL (-2.8pc) & DGKC (-2.2pc) contributed 88 points to the index decline whereas stocks including DAWH (+1.7pc), HASCOL (+5pc), MCB (+1 percent), PAKT (+1.9 percent) & GLAXO (+4.2 percent) added 70 points to the index gain.