KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange benchmark KSE 100-share Index on Monday witnessed a decrease of 399.84 points or 0.98% to settle at 40.520.47.
The bearish trend from the previous week continued as the KSE-100 index plummeted nearly 670 points in intra-day trading to finish its second successive session in red.
The KSE-100 index began to decline from the moment trading began as the deteriorating economic conditions took a toll on market sentiments. Additionally, the decision pertaining to gas tariff hike by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) and the upcoming mini-budget also kept the investors cautious.
Approval of gas tariff hike in the ECC meeting, however, brought some relief for Sui South (SSGC PA +2.7%) and Sui North (SNGP PA +1.0%). Among key announcements, Nishat Power (NPL PA -3.5%) announced its FY18 result where it declared an EPS of Rs9.07, along with final cash dividend of Rs1.5/share.
Dawood Hercules Corporation Limited (DAWH PA -3.4%) notified the exchange about terminating the transaction of Rs17.5 billion with Edotco Pakistan.
Overall, trading volumes decreased to 145.2 million shares compared with Friday’s tally of 156.8 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs5.5 billion.
Shares of 358 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 68 stocks closed higher, 265 declined and 25 remained unchanged.
Lotte Chemical was the volume leader with 23.7 million shares, losing Rs0.23 to close at Rs14.21. It was followed by Unity Foods with 13.5 million shares, losing Rs1.79 to close at Rs34.52 and Descon Oxychem with 7.9 million shares, losing Rs1.53 to close at Rs29.22.
