Zubair Yaqoob
Karachi
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 41,631 points as against 41,904 points showing a decline of 273 points. The market traded in a range on Friday between +234 points and -345 points and closed the session -273 points. Despite slight recovery in international crude oil prices, Oil & gas chain remained subdued with E&P stocks declining further by approximately 2 percent on average. Similarly, PSO showed selling pressure. Fertilizer Companies, EFERT and FFC are said to announce a cut in Price of Urea by Rs150/bag and Rs. 300/bag respectively and caused selling in Fertilizer scrips. Technology sector posted 33.3 million trading volume, followed by O&GMCs (27.6 million) and Vanaspati (24 million). Among scrips, UNITY led the table with 24 million shares, followed by HASCOL (23.5 million) and TRG (12.4 million). Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (-120 points), E&P (-100 points), Cement (-46 points), Tobacco (+32 points) and Technology (+13 points). Volumes increased from 162.3 million shares to 193.4 million shares (+19 percent DoD). Average traded value also increased by 15 percent to reach US$ 51 million as against 44.3
