PSX continues to decline despite long Eid break

KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Thursday witnessed a negative start to trading after long Eid holidays as the indices slipped lower all day long.

The benchmark KSE 100 index recorded a decline of 141.19 points and closed at 33,695.42 points. The bench scored its intraday low of 33,598.40 with a loss of 238.21 points. The total volume of shares was 146.539 million valued at Rs6.038 billion.

The KSE 30 index also witnessed a decline of 98.99 points (0.67 percent) and closed at 14,648.61 points. The total volume of scripts traded at the bourse was 75.957 million.

The KMI 30 index was short of 315.51 points ending at 54,785.19. While the KSE All-Share index lost 73.94 points settling at 24,306.80. Out of total share exchanged 133 advanced and 141 declined.

Overall volumes were recorded at 194.74 million shares. TRG Pakistan (TRG) topped the volume chart with a change of 7.50% in its share price and 24.75 million shares exchanged. It was followed by Hascol Petroleum (HASCOL +1.59%) and Unity Foods (UNTIY +8.14%). The scripts had 24.42 million shares and 21.17 million shares traded, respectively.

The sectors mainly responsible for the declining trend of KSE 100 index included banking sector (-80.26 points), oil and gas exploration sector (-59.50 points) and fertilizer sector (-24.39 points).

Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC -28.61 points), United Bank (UBL -28.23 points) and Pak Petroleum Limited (PPL -27.48 points) were the companies that chipped maximum points from the index.

Despite a negative trend the pharmaceutical sector closed with a gain of 2.31% in its cumulative market capitalization. GlaxoSmithKline (GLAXO +7.03%), The Searle Company (SEARL +6.38%) and IBL HealthCare (IBLHL +5.16%) all closed positive.

Moreover, the investors had limited time to settle their May 2020 future contracts. Global markets on the other end showed a positive trend following the ease in lockdown across many countries.

On the economic front, news reports suggest the government has decided to slash petrol price up to Rs5 to Rs10 per litre to provide relief to the people. The price of diesel is expected to be slashed by Rs2 per litre. The decision has been taken following plummeting oil prices on the international market.