KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange closed week on negative note on Friday as the benchmark KSE 100-share Index recorded a decrease of 121.28 points or 0.29% to settle at 41,742.24.
On the economic front, Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves fell 0.22% to $16.685 billion as of August 24. The reserves stood at $16.722 billion in the previous week.”
Financial and cement stocks drove the market down where selling pressure came from foreign institutions. From the banking sector, Habib Bank (-0.32%), MCB Bank (-1.19%) and United Bank (-1.01%) closed in the red.
From the cement sector, Lucky Cement (-1.94%), DG Khan Cement (-2.76%) and Fauji Cement (-1.56%) lost their share values.
Major heavyweights namely Habib Bank (-0.32%), Pakistan Petroleum (-0.02%), Oil and Gas Development Company (-0.59%), MCB Bank (-1.19%), United Bank (-1.01%) and Lucky Cement (-1.94%) cumulatively erased 87 points from the index.
Traded volumes dropped 17% to 160 million shares while the traded value decreased to $57 million. Top volume stocks were Unity Foods (+3.34%), Engro Polymer and Chemicals (+1.19%) and The Bank of Punjab (+0.17%).
Overall, trading volumes decreased to 159.8 million shares compared with Thursday’s tally of 191.5 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs7.1 billion.
Shares of 367 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 130 stocks closed higher, 215 declined while 22 remained unchanged.
Unity Foods was the volume leader with 10.5 million shares, gaining Rs1.41 to close at Rs43.64. It was followed by Engro Polymer with 10.46 million shares, gaining Rs0.41 to close at Rs34.84 and The Bank of Punjab with 8.5 million shares, gaining Rs0.02 to close at Rs11.62.
