Zubair Yaqoob
Karachi
After the restoration of crude production at Aramco facility in Abqaiq, international crude prices saw a downward trend and that similar trend was witnessed at PSX as well. Oil chain including E&P, OMCs, and Refineries drove the market with volume amid declining prices. IMF’s nod on Govt’s measures failed to give confidence to the investors on the macro-economic front. Besides, oil & gas chain, Cement sector also saw selling pressure, with the most decline observed in LUCK in past sessions. OGDC also posted higher than anticipated financial results but couldn’t bring any positivity to the falling stock price. Technology sector topped the volumes chart with 13.9M shares followed by Cement (12.2M) and O&GMCs (11.5M). Scrip-wise activity shows WTL leading the volumes with 10.3M shares followed by PAEL (8.5M) and KEL (8.3M). The Index closed at 31,555pts as against 31,909pts showing a decline of 353pts (-1.1% DoD). Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P (-123pts), Banks (-90pts), Fertilizer (-47pts), Cement (-45pts) and Power (-30pts). Volumes increased from 99.3mn shares as against 122mn shares (-19% DOD). Average traded value also declined by 24% to reach US$ 25.4mn as against US$ 33.3mn.