KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed a bearish trend on Thursday amid heavy selling, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index shedding 625.40 points (-1.34pc) to close at 46,142.74 points.
The KSE-100 Index traded in a range of 696.91 points, registering its intraday high at 46,817.51 and a low of 46,120.6. It finally settled at 46,142.74 points.
Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index lost 288.86 points (-0.9pc) to close at 31,759.82 points, while All Share Islamic Index dropped 222.1 (-0.95pc), ending at 23,052.28 points.
A total of 412 companies traded shares in the stock exchange, of which shares of 140 closed up, shares of 250 closed down while those of 22 companies remained unchanged. All share volume decreased by 123.81 million shares to 577.95 million shares, while market capitalisation decreased by Rs75.98 billion. Total trades decreased by 33,278 to 171,629, while value traded decreased by Rs5.30 billion to Rs23.20 billion.
Among scrips, DSL topped the volumes with 58.6 million shares, followed by TELE (34.3 million) and KEL (29.3 million).
Sector wise, the index was let down by commercial banks with 247 points, cement with 83 points, fertilizer with 74 points, oil & gas exploration companies with 68 points and oil & gas marketing companies with 55 points. The most points taken off the index was by HBL which stripped the index of 91 points followed by ENGRO with 58 points, PSO with 52 points, LUCK with 44 points and MCB with 41 points.
Sectors propping up the index were refinery with 6 points, glass & ceramics with 5 points, insurance with 3 points, automobile parts & accessories with 2 points and cable & electrical goods with one point. The most points added to the index was by ANL which contributed 10 points followed by GHGL with 5 points, AICL with 4 points, THALL with 3 points and KTML with 3 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market saw aggressive selling during the day after a spate of financial result announcements which had consistent earnings but declared lesser dividends than anticipated.
Banking sector saw major attrition; however, profit booking was also observed in cement, O&GMCs and E&P sectors. Market on close saw intense selling in the banking sector. Important results announced during the session included ENGRO, PSO, MEBL, but ended the session at a low ebb due to the general disappointment.
According to other analysts, major despair in the trading floor was caused by the performance of the banking sector, especially after Meezan Bank and Faysal Bank announced their results. The trading activity was also influenced by the financial results of ENGRO, PSO, and MARI, all of which were announced during the day.
Another major highlight for the session was Dost Steels Limited, as it topped the volumes with 58.6M shares after Crescent Star Insurance Limited addressed different queries, particular by the members of DSL to clarify that it is not in possession of any material information, and nor is aware of any ongoing restructuring/acquisition deals as rumoured.
