Pakistan stocks shed 211 points in dull trading

KARACHI: Pakistan Stocks ended down by 211 points on Friday as market witnessed dull trading and investors preferred profit taking during the day.

The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) ended at 43,270 points from previous day’s closing of 43,481 points, showing a decline of 211 points.

Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market remained under pressure throughout the day as investors opted for profit taking.

“Activity remained dull in the first session due to lack of any trigger. In the second session, profit taking was witnessed across the board which led the index to close in the red zone,” the analysts added.

Refinery sector remained in the limelight. Main board volumes stayed dull whereas hefty volumes were observed in the 3rd tier stocks.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (-81.6 points), Cement (-56.4 points), Power (-33.3 points), Tobacco (-11.2 points) and E&P (-10.3 points).

Volumes decreased from 621.2 million shares to 306.2 million shares (-50.7 per cent DoD). Average traded value also decreased by 39.1 per cent to reach US$ 29.8 million as against US$ 48.9 million.

Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes are HASCOL, PRL, BOP, CNERGY and WTL.