Bearish trend continues at PSX as index sinks 222 points

KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) continued its downward march for the third consecutive day, with the benchmark index plunging over 222 points on Friday.

At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded a decrease of 222.85 points, or 0.5%, to settle at 44,706.76 points.

Sectors contributing to the performance included exploration and production (-54 points), chemical (-40 points), fertilizer (-38 points), power (-32 points) and textile (-28 points).

Individually, stocks that contributed positively to the index included TRG Pakistan (+49 points), Habib Metropolitan Bank (+30 points), Adamjee Insurance Company (+15 points), NBP (+12 points) and PSX (+5 points).

Stocks that contributed negatively were Oil and Gas Development Company (-31 points), Colgate-Palmolive (-31 points), Hubco (-27 points), Engro Corporation (-16 points) and HBL (-12 points). Volumes remained subdued amid uncertainty, decreasing from 329 million shares on Thursday to 240 million shares.

Stocks that contributed the most to the volumes were Ghani Global Holdings (+4.9%), WorldCall Telecom (+2%), TRG Pakistan (+2.6%), Unity Foods (-1.6%), Byco Petroleum (-0.5%) and Telecard Limited (+7.4%).

The better activity was witnessed in Habib Metropolitan Bank (+7.4%) on the back of the announcement of first-quarter earnings per share of Rs3.1. up 111% year-on-year.