KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange continued to end negative for the fourth successive session on Thursday.
Earlier, trading began on a negative note with the KSE-100 index tumbling in the wake of scant investor interest. Selling pressure persisted amid a weak corporate earnings outlook.
After hitting an intra-day low of 41,750.54 points, the index managed to make a brief recovery before the end of the session. At close, the benchmark KSE 100-share Index recorded a decrease of 485.76 points or 1.14% to settle at 41,960.80.
Some major corporate results were unveiled during the day. Engro Corporation (-4.43%), Bank AL Habib (-0.63%) and Pak Elektron (-4.84%) posted quarterly consolidated earnings per share of Rs3.62, up 116% year-on-year, Rs1.93, up 2% and Rs1.34, down 41% respectively, which failed to garner investors’ interest.
Overall, trading volumes decreased to 142.2 million shares compared with Wednesday’s tally of 145.3 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs7.2 billion.
Shares of 375 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 77 stocks closed higher, 278 declined while 20 remained unchanged.
Descon Oxychem was the volume leader with 8.9 million shares, gaining Rs0.52 to close at Rs22.97. It was followed by Pak Elektron with 8.85 million shares, losing Rs1.76 to close at Rs34.61 and The Bank of Punjab with 6.7 million shares, losing Rs0.23 to close at Rs11.26.
Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs151.1 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.
