Daily Times

Stocks extended losses for the second consecutive day on Wednesday, following a choppy session at Pakistan Stock Exchange as lack of positive triggers ensued selling pressure.

On Wednesday the benchmark KSE-100 index witnessed a range bound activity,as it witnessed a spike after the bell owing to a short buying spell in selective stocks, but failing to maintain the momentum, the index pared earlier gains and ceded ground to the bears. The index traded in a range of 453.35 points or 0.93 percent of previous close, showing an intraday high of 48,880.02 and a low of 48,426.67.

Irfan Saeed, Senior Vice President, BMA Capital Management Limited,said that lack of positive triggers and the upcoming Financial Action Task Force (FATF) meeting on Pakistan’s status, scheduled later this month, forced investors to take a cautious stance and they resorted to profit-taking

During the session Market Capital decreased by Rs.31.38 billion, while total value traded decreased by 5.76 billion to Rs.22.41 billion.

The volume at KSE-100 clocked in at 409.17 million shares while all shares index recorded a volume of 936 million shares.

At KSE-100 the volume chart was led by K-Electric Limited followed by WorldCall telecom Limited and Byco Petroleum Pakistan Limited.The scrips exchanged 114.96 million, 87.35 million and 63.18 million shares.

As per the National Clearing Company of Pakistan limited (NCCPL) foreign investors were net sellers of worth $2.17 million worth of shares.

Among local investors, Mutual Funds and Brokers led the selling chart, which offloaded $3.8million, $1.75 million worth of equities.

However, Individuals and Banks led the buying chart and mopped up about $6 million and $1.7 million worth of equities.

During the session, sectors which dented the index were Cement with 55 points, Commercial Banks with 34 points, Chemical with 24 points, Fertilizer with 17 points and Engineering with 16 points.

Among the scrips, the most points taken off the index was by ENGRO which stripped the index of 21 points followed by Pakistan Petroleum Limited with 18 points, Colgate Pakistan with 15 points, K-Electric with 14 points and DG Khan Cement with 14 points.

However, sectors propping up the index were Textile Composite with 26 points, Tobacco with 18 points, Power Generation & Distribution with 13 points, Leather & Tanneries with 9 points and Refinery with 4 points.

Among the scrips, the most points added to the index was by Hub Power Company which contributed 27 points followed by Pakistan Tobacco with 18 points, Pakistan Oilfields Limited with 16 points, Kohinoor Textiles Mills Limited with 16 points and Service Industry Limited with 9 points.