Staff Reporter
Karachi
Bears and bulls struggled for control over the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Monday and the former managed to dominate proceedings.
The benchmark KSE-100 index oscillated between red and green zones, touching intra-day high and low of 114 and 160 points.
The bearish trend was driven by cement and oil stocks amid uncertainty in global crude oil prices. Moreover, unimpressive trade data, with trade deficit marginally widening to $9.6 billion in first five months of the current fiscal year on the back of a nominal increase in exports and imports, adversely impacted the positive momentum, pulling the stock index down following five days of consecutive advance.
At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded a decrease of 91.69 points, or 0.22%, to settle at 42,115.31 points.
Individually, stocks that contributed positively to the index included TRG Pakistan (+16 points), Adamjee Insurance Company (+13 points), Bank AL Habib (+12 points), Nestle Pakistan (+9 points) and Engro Polymer and Chemicals (+7 points).
Stocks that contributed negatively were Oil and Gas Development Company (-27 points), Pakistan Petroleum (-25 points), MCB (-15 points), Dawood Hercules (-10 points) and Lucky Cement (-10 points).
