KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) remained bearish till midday after shedding 13 points to reach 40037 level on Tuesday.
Earlier, the stocks opened day on negative note and shed 33 points to reach 40017 level in early trading.
Yesterday the stocks started trading week with positive momentum as the benchmark KSE 100-index inched up by 39 points and closed at 40,050 points.
Key sectors contributing positively to the index included oil & gas sector, cement, insurance and automobile. On the contrary, commercial banks, power, fertilizer sectors failed to entice investors, said AHL Market Data. Blue eyed stocks included OGDC that added 42 points, PPL 23 points, SNGP 21 points, LUCK 16 points and UBL added 14 points to the index gain. Stocks that contributed negatively to the index included HUBC that shed 36 points, HBL that eroded 20 points, ENGRO that detracted 18 points, MCB that took away 18 points and TRG that shed 16 points from the index.
A rally was witnessed in the cement sector where LUCK (up 1.24%), DGKC (up 1.85%) and MLCF (up 1.25%) closed positively. Banking space remained under pressure throughout the day as HBL (down 0.83%), MCB (1.00%) and BAFL (0.89%) closed in the red trajectory.
E&P sector caught investors’ interest and closed higher than its previous day close where POL (up 0.56%), PPL (1.22%) and OGDC (2.01) closed in the green zone. Market volume declined by 46.5% DoD from 180.7m shares to 96.7m shares. Average traded value also declined significantly from USD 152m to USD 43.5m (-71% DoD).
Major market drivers were TRG, KEL, ANL, DSL and WTL which contributed 36.4m shares and 38% of the total volume traded.