Bearish spell continues as benchmark index sheds another 366 points

KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) continued with its bearish trend on Wednesday with the benchmark KSE-100 Index shedding 366.17 points (-0.8pc) to close at 45,362.58 points.

The benchmark index traded in a range of 682.3 points, posting its intraday high at 45,887.7 and low of 45,205.4. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index lost 298.94 points (-0.95pc) to close at 31,327.25 points, while the All Share Islamic Index dropped 209.33 points (-0.91pc) to close at 22,696.05 points.

A total of 420 companies traded shares in the stock exchange, of which shares of 80 closed up, 322 closed down while that of 18 companies remained unchanged. All share volume decreased by 160.72 million to 557.50 million shares, while market capitalisation decreased by Rs78.04 billion. Total trades decreased by 21,217 to 177,837, while value traded increased by Rs0.95 billion to Rs26.25 billion. Among scrips, BYCO realized trading volume of 84.3 million shares, followed by TRG (47.3 million) and WTL (27.2 million).

As per sector-wise performance, the index was let down by oil & gas exploration companies with 48 points, fertilizer with 46 points, textile composite with 41 points, power generation & distribution with 38 points and oil & gas marketing companies with 36 points. OGDC stripped the index of 32 points, followed by ENGRO with 26 points, PSO with 24 points, NBP with 23 points and HUBC with 22 points. Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market saw continuation of selling pressure in conventional top tier stocks and in addition bore pressure in rollover heavy scrips (TRG & NETSOL) as well. The benchmark index was further influenced by oil prices, which fell on Wednesday after industry data showed a surprise build in US crude stocks last week as a deep freeze in the southern states curbed demand from refineries that were forced to shut.