KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) Tuesday witnessed another bearish day as the benchmark KSE-100 Index lost 224 points to close at 44,233.
The index opened higher and touched a day’s high of 44,615 before mid-day trading cut into early gains and the index slid to a low of 44,081 points. It recovered slightly thereafter to close above 44,200 points.
A total of 282.5 million shares worth Rs9.5 billion were traded at the exchange. While 132 of the 365 traded scrips advanced, 214 declined and 19 remained unchanged. Technology and communication sector dominated trading with 47.1m shares traded.
Yesterday the benchmark 100-share index traded in a 500-point range. However, selling pressure was seen in rest of the market as investors weighted the negative impact of rate hike on other sectors and companies. The market closed at 44,457 points, down 94 points.
Top volume leader both by volume and value was DCL, up 5 percent, on back of news of stay order from court against its recently notified trading suspension. Participation declined as traded volume dropped by 29 percent whereas traded value was down 12 percent.
Top 5 index point detractors included LUCK (-2.9 percent), OGDC (-1.6 percent), FFC (-2.4 percent), MLCF (-4.7 percent) & DGKC (-2.2 percent), which withheld 157 points from the index while UBL (+2.8 percent), BAHL (+5 percent), MCB (+1.3 percent), BAFL (+5 percent) & HBL (+0.8 percent) added 184 points to the index. Bottom-line was supported by share of profit from associate, which was up 87 percent YoY from Rs48m to Rs90m.
