KARACHI: The bearish trend opened trading at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) as the benchmark 100-index shed 188 points to reach 41786 points level in early trading on Tuesday.
On Monday, the stocks kicked off new trading week in the red zone as the benchmark KSE 100-index fell to fresh 2017 low. The index shed 668 points and closed at 41,974 points. The market opened on a negative note and continued to decline throughout the day.
The day started with news about HBL (-5.0%), as the State Department of Financial Services sent a notice to HBL seeking imposition of a penalty of up to $630m, much higher than street expectations. Top 10 index point decliners were HBL (down 5%), UBL (3.4%), MARI (5%), ENGRO (2.3%), PPL (1.5%), MTL (5%), DAWH (2.7%), DGKC (3%), MCB (1%) & LUCK (down 1.7%); withholding 427 points.
Participation was minimal as volumes receded 42% to 103m shares while traded value fell 39% to Rs5.7b/$54m. Scrips of total 377 active companies traded in the session of which 266 closed in red, 86 in green while 25 remained unchanged.