KARACHI: The stock market fell by 165 points on Friday owing to profit taking on the last trade day of the week and bearish trend in world stocks.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 42,023 points as against 42,188 points showing a decline of 165 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market traded in a range following the onslaught in international markets that saw stocks markets in developed countries plummeting overnight.
Local investors considered best to book profit rather than carry positions over the weekend.
Selling pressure was observed in Cement, Fertilizer, E&P and Banking sector stocks amongst few winners in Steel and Tech sectors. O&GMCs topped the volumes with 92.7 million shares, followed by Cement (86.7 million) and Banks (82.2 million).
Among scrips, HASCOL led the volumes with 73.1 million shares, followed by FFL (51.6 million) and UNITY (41.3 million).
Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (-60 points), Power (-59 points), Cement (-32 points), Fertilizer (-20 points) and Textile (-15 points).
Volumes declined from 919.5 million shares to 758.1 million shares (-18 percent DoD). Average traded value also declined by 7 percent to reach US$ 149.4 million as against US$ 160.1 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include HASCOL, FFL, UNITY, BOP and MLCF, which formed 29 percent of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively to the index include SYS (+31 points), HASCOL (+20 points), ISL (+12 points), JLICL (+11 points) and PSX (+10 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include HUBC (-53 points), UBL (-26 points), LUCK (-22 points), TRG (-14 points) and ENGRO (-13 points).
