KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange on Wednesday continued to end on negative note as the benchmark KSE 100-share Index recorded a decrease of 240.06 points or 0.59% to settle at 40,560.19.
Earlier, trading started on a positive note, but selling pressure emerged soon which dominated proceedings until the end and dragged the index down to below 40,600 points.
It was the third consecutive drop for the stock market when almost all major stocks fell. However, fertiliser shares displayed exceptional performance and rose despite the selling pressure.
Lacklustre activity prevailed as only 52 million shares were traded while traded value for the benchmark index stood at $19.6 million – the lowest since May 17, 2018.
The index hit an intra-day high of +39 points and intra-day low of -329 points.
Once again, financial, cement and energy stocks pulled the market down. Habib Bank (-0.6%), MCB Bank (-1%) and United Bank (-0.5%) closed in the red. In the cement sector, Lucky Cement (-0.8%), DG Khan Cement (-0.6%) and Maple Leaf Cement (-1.8%) were the major laggards.
Major heavyweights Habib Bank (-0.6%), Pakistan Petroleum Limited (-1.4%), Oil and Gas Development Company (-0.9%), Engro (-0.9%), MCB Bank (-1%) and United Bank (-0.5%) cumulatively erased 105 points from the index.
Overall, trading volumes decreased to 90 million shares compared with Tuesday’s tally of 106.5 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs3.35 billion.
Shares of 357 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 124 stocks closed higher, 213 declined and 20 remained unchanged.
Unity Foods was the volume leader with 7.9 million shares, losing Rs0.04 to close at Rs31.02. It was followed by Nishat Chunian with 5.6 million shares, gaining Rs0.90 to close at Rs53.18 and TRG Pakistan with 5.4 million shares, losing Rs0.78 to close at Rs27.25.
