KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Tuesday closed bearish as the benchmark KSE-100 Index shed 124 points to close at 43,705.
The benchmark index opened higher to touch the day’s high at 44,044 points and then slid into the red for most of the session. It touched a day’s low of 43,660 points near the close of trading.
Volumes edged up, as 177.6 million shares worth Rs8.0 billion changed hands compared to 137m shares worth Rs5.9b traded in the preceding session. Of the 357 traded scrips, 134 advanced, 201 declined and 22 remained unchanged.
The index tested an intra-day high over the 44K psychological barrier, but failed to sustain that level as losses in other index heavyweights, including Habib Bank Limited (-1.6pc), MCB Bank Limited (-0.5pc), Pakistan Oilfields Limited (0.5pc) and Engro Corporation (-1.2pc) dented the index. Later in the day, the cement sector too pared morning gains on profit-taking and closed mostly in the red.
Overall, the cement sector dominated trading with 28.6m shares traded, while chemicals and engineering scrips followed with 25.9m and 18.8m shares changing hands.
Yesterday, the stocks closed marginally up on the first day of the week owing to lack of any trigger as the 100-share index gained 88.58 points to close at 43829.07 points.
Volumes remained subdued, as 137m shares changed hands during the day. Most of the dull activity can be attributed to political uncertainty and lack of positive triggers. Cement sector continued its upward rally as cement dispatches for 8MFY18 recorded 14% YoY growth, clocking in at 30.11m tons; while Feb-2018 sales clocked in at 3.78m tons, up 10% YoY, and down 7% MoM. LUKC (up 1.31%), MLCF (up 2.27%) and FCCL (3.85%) were the major gainers of the mentioned sector.
Top 5 stocks including HBL (up 1.3%), LUCK (1.3%), FCCL (3.9%), BAHL (1.5%) & PIBTL (4.5%) added 110 points to the index gain, whereas stocks including MCB (down 0.8%), UBL (0.6%), PPL (0.6%), ENGRO (0.6%) & MTL (1.1%) withheld 56 points from the index.
Volumes declined significantly from 229.9m shares as against 137m shares (-40% DoD). Average traded value also declined by 39% from $86.9m to $53.5m. Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included UNITY, WTL, AGL, FCCL and EPCL, reflecting 31% of total volumes.
