Daily Times

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) remained bearish on Monday in a low-volume session, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index shedding 204.95 points (-0.46 percent) to close at 43,913.44 points.

The market opened on a positive note but remained in the green territory only for the first 10 minutes and then remained negative throughout the session. The investors remained cautious due to the start of the rollover week and the upcoming mini-budget.

The KSE-100 Index moved in a range of 320.6 points, showing an intraday high of 44,167.5 points and a low of 43,846.9 points. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index shed 102.34 points (-0.34 percent) to close at 30,101.59 points, while KMI All Share Islamic Index shed 85.96 points (-0.39 percent) to close at 21,708.64 points. A total of 357 companies traded shares in the stock exchange, out of them shares of 123 closed up, shares of 200 closed down while shares of 34 companies remained unchanged. Out of 94 traded companies in the KSE-100 Index, 40 closed up, 52 closed down and two remained unchanged.

The overall market volumes decreased by 108.71 million to 114.67 million shares. Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index decreased by 17.50 million to 53.46 million shares. The number of total trades decreased by 37,988 to 61,134, while the value traded decreased by Rs2.92 billion to Rs4.42 billion. Overall market capitalisation decreased by Rs25.61 billion.

Among scrips, CNERGY topped the volumes with 10.88 million shares, followed by TRG (9.51 million) and UNITYR3 (9.26 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included CNERGY, TRG, UNITYR3, UNITY, and TELE, which formed around 34 percent of total volumes.

The major sectors taking the index toward south were oil & gas exploration companies with 63 points, technology & communication with 55 points, power generation & distribution with 34 points, commercial banks with 33 points and food & personal care products with 30 points. The most points taken off the index were by TRG which stripped the index of 61 points followed by MARI with 36 points, HUBC with 30 points, PPL with 17 points and NESTLE with 15 points.