Equity market ends down by 120 pts on selling pressure

Equity market ends down by 120 pts on selling pressure

KARACHI: The equity market ended down by 120 points on Wednesday owing to continued selling pressure.

The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 39,568 points as against 39,689 points showing a decline of 120 points.

Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market remained under pressure during the day despite starting with positive 30 points.

During the session, the index saw oscillation of 351 points (-194 points to +157 points) and the ended the session in red (unadjusted).

Following the trend in past couple of sessions, banking sector again topped the chart, mainly contributed by BOP with 18 million shares however, price declined slightly.

Besides banking sector, Cement followed suit and investors took interest in DGKC, FCCL, MLCF and LUCK among others.

E&P, O&GMCs and Steel saw selling pressure and little interest was seen in underlying scrips.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (-29 points), O&GMCs (-26 points), Power (-25 points), E&P (-25 points), Tobacco (-10 points), Cement (+22 points).

Volumes declined significantly from 164 million shares to 81 million shares (-50 percent DoD). Average traded value also declined by 33 percent to reach US$ 28 million as against US$ 42 million.

Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include BOP, UNITY, KEL, FCCL and MLCF, which formed 44 percent of total volumes.

Stocks that contributed positively include BAHL (+19 points), PSEL (+18 points), LUCK (+9 points), EPCL (+8 points), and FCCL (+7 points).

Stocks that contributed negatively include OGDC (-24 points), HBL (-21 points), HUBC (-19 points), MCB (-14 points) and PSO (-12 points).