KARACHI: Bearish trend continued at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Tuesday, with the benchmark KSE-100 index falling below the 39,000-mark.
Foreign investors offloaded equities worth $3.03 million on Monday.
Gaining 104.02 points, the KSE-100 Index touched its intraday high at 39,247.75 during the initial trading hours. However, failing to sustain the gains, the index touched its intraday low at 38,693.02 after losing 450.71 points. It finally settled lower by 285.28 points at 38,858.45.
Among other indices, the KMI-30 Index plunged 343.75 points to close at 61,171.80, while the KSE All Share Index lost 229.32 points, ending at 27,018.98.
The overall trading volumes shrank from 144.28 million in the previous session to 124.35 million, with Unity Foods Limited (UNITY +2.11pc), The Bank of Punjab (BOP +0.40pc) and Hascol Petroleum Limited (HASCOL +0.52pc) leading the volume chart. The scrips had exchanged 10.03 million, 9.16 million and 8.65 million shares, respectively.
Sectors that painted the KSE-100 Index red included banking (-115.70 points), oil & gas exploration (-81.34 points) and fertiliser (-46.95 points). Among the companies, United Bank Limited (UBL -53.87 points), Pak Petroleum Limited (PPL -51.58 points) and Engro Corporation Limited (ENGRO -48.93 points) dented the index the most.
On the financial side, Hub Power Company Limited (HUBC -1.29pc) declared its financial performance for the second quarter of FY20. Despite 62pc increase in its gross profit, the company’s earnings per share shrank from Rs1.28 to Rs1.10. Its cumulative EPS for the first two quarters was recorded at Rs2.34.
Meanwhile, Pak Petroleum Limited (PPL -2.89pc) announced that the company’s revenue increased by 7.53pc in 2QFY20. Exploration cost inflated by 85pc, finance cost surged by 91pc while ‘other income; declined by 68pc. The company posted an EPS of Rs9.02 (2QFY19: Rs11.41).
In a notification to the exchange, Hi-Tech Lubricants Limited (HTL+0.70) announced that it has been granted permission by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) to proceed to apply/acquire no-objection certificates (NOCs) from concerned departments to set up 35 retail outlets in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with instructions that retails sales can only be started after completion of necessary storage infrastructure, third-party inspector report confirming that the storage/depots at Nowshera meets OGRA’s notified technical standards.
