KARACHI: Trading floor at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) turned red on Friday owing to lack of positive triggers. Indices kept following the negative path despite a surge in market volumes.
Foreign investors closed the previous session as net buyers with a net inflow of $1.59 million.
On the economic front, Pakistan’s total liquid foreign reserves declined by 2.5pc on a weekly basis to $14,862 million (as on July 19, 2019). The reserves were previously recorded at $15,249 million.
Shedding 414.42 points, the KSE-100 Index benchmark marked its intraday low of 32,031.98. It settled lower by 343.13 points at 32,103.27. The KMI-30 Index closed in the negative territory (down by 588.94 points) at 50,417.25, while the KSE All Share Index depreciated by 338.15 points, ending at 23,409.47. Out of the total traded scripts, 52 advanced, 229 declined while the value of 17 remained unchanged.
The overall volumes improved from 63.52 million in the previous session to 86.57 million (+36pc). The Bank of Punjab (BOP +2.11pc), Worldcall Telecom (WTL -1.67pc) and Pak Elektron Limited (PAEL -4.00pc) were the volume leaders of the day. The scripts had exchanged 23.85 million shares, 7.25 million shares and 4.07 million shares respectively.
Sectors that held KSE-100 Index in the red zone included fertilizer sector (-46.34 points), power generation and distribution sector (-39.80) and cement sector (-38.40 points).
Meanwhile, the companies that chipped off most points included Hub Power Company Limited (HUBC -30.85 points), Pakistan Tobacco Company Limited (PAKT -27.05 points) and Fauji Fertilizer Company Limited (FFC -20.23).
Among market results, Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim Limited (FFBL -5.87pc) declared an earning per share of Rs-0.09, Wyeth Pakistan Limited (WYETH -5.00pc) posted an EPS of Rs-21.25, Security Papers Limited (SEPL -3.15) of Rs13.03 and Gadoon Textile Mills Limited (GADT +1.60pc) of Rs41.61. The latter two companies declared final cash dividends of Rs7.25 and 8.50 respectively.
