KARACHI: The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) ended down on Thursday owing to profit taking in various scrips. The index closed at 40,507 points as against 40,544 points showing a decline of 37 points.
Yesterday’s buying activity in Cement Sector blue chips, like MLCF, FCCL, DGKC was faced with profit taking today and ended the session at lower circuits.
Chemical sector led the volumes today with 33 million shares, majority of which was observed in LOTCHEM.
Result announcement of LOTCHEM resulted in profit booking but buying interest at slight discount kept the interest alive.
Cement Sector also garnered 23 million volume which was seen in DGKC, FCCL and MLCF.
Banking sector blue chips HBL and UBL rebounded after trading briefly in red.
Sectors contributing to the performance include Pharma (+36 points), E&P (+33 points), Banks (+27 points), Chemical (+11 points), Cement (-74 points), Fertilizer (-27 points), O&GMCs (-20 points).
Volumes declined from 160mn shares to 123 million shares (-23 percent DoD). Average traded value also dipped by 14 percent to reach US$ 45 million as against US$ 52 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include LOTCHEM, DGKC, FCCL, SNBL and MLCF, which formed 41 percent of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively include UBL (+39 points), SEARL (+26 points), POL (+12 points), PPL (+11 points), and COLG (+10 points).
Stocks that contributed negatively include DGKC (-23 points), PSO (-21 points), LUCK (-15 points), PAKT (-15 points) and MLCF (-14 points).
