KARACHI: The stocks remained in pressure till midday and lost 59 points to reach 41486.72 points level.
Earlier, the Pakistan Stock Exchange Friday witnessed fluctuation and added only 23 points to reach 41568.77 points level in early trading.
On Thursday, the stocks staged strong recovery as the 100-share index touched new highs of 41545.35 points after rallying by 622 points, (up 1.5%). The rally in the local bourse was led by the oil sector that rallied as global crude oil prices held near a 15-month high after government data showed that US stockpiles declined unexpectedly, trimming an overhang of inventories. OGDC (up 2.26%) and PPL (4.56%) were the biggest index movers of the sector yesterday. Similarly, rally in the banking sector was witnessed on the back of better-than-expected 9-month results. Both BAHL and HBL announced their 9M2016 results, with EPS clocking in at Rs4.88/share and Rs17.47/share respectively. Overall, volumes increased by 10.8 percent to 561 million shares, while value rose by 50 percent to Rs18.6 billion/$178 million. BOP led the volumes with 68m shares traded; stock gained 3.9%.