Staff Reporter
Karachi
The KSE-100 index kicked off on a positive note, on the week’s last trading day, nearly touching the 40,500-point mark before the mid-day break. However, the trend changed dramatically and the KSE-100 plunged into negative as soon as trading resumed in the second half.
Selling pressure was seen in stocks across the board, particularly in oil stocks as international oil prices slipped on uncertainty over fuel demand. Despite the overall volatility, buying in the last hour helped recoup some losses but the index finished lower.
At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded a decrease of 136.43 points, or 0.34%, to settle at 40,029.69 points.
Sectors contributing to the performance include banks (down 68 points), exploration and production (43 points), cement (30 points), power (30 points) and fertiliser (21 points).
Individually stocks that contributed positively to the index include MEBL (up 21 points), PIBTL (16 points), KTML (15 points), IGIHL (13 points) and PSMC (9 points). On the other hand, stocks that contributed negatively include UBL (down 40 points), HBL (33 points), HUBC (26 points), MCB (17 points) and POL (15 points). Overall, trading volumes plunged to 728.8 million shares compared with Thursday’s tally of 826.8 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs23 billion.
