KARACHI:Â Bears dominated Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Friday (today), with the benchmark KSE-100 index failing to maintain early gains, dropping over 204 points.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index moved in a narrow range today, registering its intraday high at 45,757.56 (+31.40 points) and low at 45,436.91 (-289.25 points). It settled lower by 204.54 points at 45,521.63.
Among other indices, the KMI-30 Index dropped 465.01 points to end at 74,401.43, while the KSE All Share Index lost 129.71 points, closing at 31,054.89. The overall market volumes appreciated from 470.38 million shares on Thursday to 528.41 million shares (+12pc). Average traded value, on the contrary, declined 3pc, from $167 million to $162.9 million.
Byco Petroleum Pakistan Ltd (BYCO +4.91pc), Pakistan Refinery Ltd (PRL +7.22pc) and Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd (PTC +0.30pc) led the volume chart, exchanging 83.19 million, 56.41 million and 39.61 million shares, respectively. Sectors that dragged the benchmark index lower included banking (-91.08 points), cement (-71.01 points) and oil & gas exploration (-45.61 points).
Among the companies, Habib Bank Ltd (HBL -53.39 points), Pakistan State Oil Company Ltd (PSO -27.21 points) and Bank AL Habib Ltd (BAHL -24.78 points) dented the index the most.
Shedding 1.41pc from its cumulative market capitalization, the cement sector ended as the session’s worst performer, with Lucky Cement Ltd (LUCK -0.87pc), Bestway Cement Ltd (BWCL 1.27pc) and DG Khan Cement Company Ltd (DGKC 2.02pc) closing in the negative.
