KARACHI: The stocks Tuesday opened flat with only 9 points gain to reach 34576.68 points level.
On Monday, volatility prevailed on the first session of the week as Pakistan Stock Exchange benchmark 100-share index shed 151.77 points to close at 34567.52 points. The oil and gas sector remained under pressure after global crude oil prices came down from their high over the weekend to trade around $46.80/barrel (Brent). Major laggards of the aforementioned sector were NRL (down 2.30%), ATRL (down 2.07%) and OGDC that decreased by 1.89%. Profit-taking was witnessed in the cement and banking sectors amid increased political noise and uncertainty. Volume decreased by 27% to 185m shares while value decreased by 47% to Rs 7.0b/67$m. After rising last week, profit-taking was seen in banking stocks. MCB, HBL and UBL declined by 2.4%, 0.8% and 0.5% respectively.
