KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed another bearish day on Friday as the KSE-100 index shed 880.37 points or 2.29% to settle at 37,517.93.
The stock market plunged over 950 points in intra-day trading, slipping below the 37,500 mark.
Market participants reacted to a sharp dip in the foreign currency reserves held by the central bank, which slipped another $101 million and settled at $8.3 billion. The foreign exchange reserves have been on a downward path for seven successive weeks.
The KSE-100 index remained on a downward trajectory from the moment trading began as selling pressure mounted.
Top heavyweights Habib Bank (-1.88%), Oil and Gas Development Company (-1.82%), Engro (-3.46%), Pakistan Petroleum (-2.10%), MCB Bank (-3.01%), Pakistan Oilfields (-2.87%), United Bank (-1.90%), Fauji Fertiliser (-2.92%) and Lucky Cement (-5%) cumulatively took away 410 points from the index.
DG Khan Cement (-4.64%) and Maple Leaf Cement (-4.65%) closed near their lower price limits.
Pressure was also seen in the financial sector where HBL (-1.88%), MCB Bank (-3.01%) and UBL (-1.90%) were the major laggards.
Searl (-2.12%) in the pharma sector announced its FY18 results where the company reported consolidated earnings per share of Rs14.55 with a cash payout of Rs5 and bonus of 15%.
In the exploration and production sector, Pakistan Oilfields (-2.87%) announced first-quarter consolidated earnings per share of Rs12.57 with no cash payout. Attock Refinery (-0.99%) reported loss per share of Rs1.97 with no dividend.
Overall, trading volumes increased to 135.4 million shares compared with Thursday’s tally of 134.6 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs5.5 billion.
Shares of 363 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 60 stocks closed higher, 288 declined and 15 remained unchanged.
TRG Pakistan was the volume leader with 10 million shares, losing Rs1.18 to close at Rs22.54. It was followed by K-Electric with 8.9 million shares, gaining Rs0.10 to close at Rs5.21 and Engro Polymer with 8.7 million shares, losing Rs0.75 to close at Rs29.36.
