KARACHI: The bearish note continued till midday at Pakistan Stock Exchange as the benchmark 100-index shed 105 points to reach 43708 level on Monday.
Earlier, stocks opened bearish after shedding 21 points to drop to 43788 level in early trading.
On Friday, the stock market on the last trading day of the week closed positive with benchmark KSE100 Index settling at 43,809 levels, up by 128 points or 0.3 percent. The bourse remained in the red zone in the first half of the trading session, making a low of -393 points.
On the economic front, SBP’s total liquid forex reserves decline by $172 million to $19.18 billon. Moreover, China has agreed to accommodate the demands of Pakistani exporters in the amended Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which is expected to be signed in March according to the Ministry of Commerce. Traded volumes plunged by 8 percent DoD to 226 million shares while value traded dropped to $83 million. Top volume stocks were ANL (+5.59 percent), ASL (+3.37 percent), FFL (+5 percent), LOTCHEM (+1.66 percent) and TRG (+2.54 percent).
In the E&P sector, OGDC (-0.15 percent) and PPL (-0.61 percent) came under the hammer as the global oil prices fell for the sixth day due to concerns about a sharp rise in global supplies.