The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) benchmark KSE 100-index lost 169.06 points or 0.43 per cent on Thursday, August 4, and closed at 39,446.70.
Contrary to market expectations of a bullish trend, the PSX saw a bearish trend and the following sectors pulled the index down: cements, refineries, oil marketing companies (OMCs), steel, textile, autos, fertilizers and telecommunications.
The cement sector particularly came under heavy pressure due to the market reaction on Richard Bay futures shooting up, according to Inter Market Securities.
The energy and power (E&P) sector, however, provided an upward contribution to the index and stayed green after crude oil prices rallied overnight. Refineries and OMCs remained under heavy pressure and a few among the banks also weighed down the index.
In the cement sector, Lucky Cement saw a fall of 1.62 per cent; D.G. Khan Cement, a fall of 2.28 per cent; Maple Leaf Cement Factory Ltd, a reduction of 1.38 per cent; Cherat Cement Company Ltd, a fall of 3.21 per cent; Fauji Cement Company Ltd a fall of 0.91 per cent while Kohat Cement Company Ltd witnessed a dip of 2.24 per cent. Pakistan Petroleum Ltd, however, saw a surge of 1.12 per cent; Pakistan Oilfields Ltd, an increase of 2.28 per cent and Oil and Gas Development Co Ltd saw an increase of 0.45 per cent.
In the banking sector, Muslim Commercial Bank and Habib Bank Ltd both witnessed a fall of 0.54 per cent and 0.95 per cent respectively while the National Bank of Pakistan, Bank Alfalah Ltd and United Bank Ltd each saw an increase of 0.64 per cent, 1.58 per cent and 0.14 per cent respectively.
The volume leaders on Thursday were Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Ltd with an increase of 1.97 per cent, Dewan Cement Ltd with 0.00 per cent and Agritech Ltd with a negative 2.17 per cent. Major contributors in driving the index down were Feroze Mills Limited -5 per cent which took away 53 points from the index followed by Lucky Cement’s -25 points, D.G. Khan Cement Co’s -20 points while Habib Bank Ltd brought the index down by -16 points. On the flip side, the E&P contributed the most with Pakistan Oilfields Ltd, Pakistan Petroleum Ltd and Oil and Gas Development Co adding 36 points to the 100-index.
A total of Rs 7.657 billion worth of shares were traded while the volume was 33.127 million shares. The market reached a high of 39,824.14 points and a low of 39,395.73 points with the percentage change of -0.43 per cent.
