Market watch: KSE-100 decreases 462 points as correction continues

Benchmark index falls 1.06% to close at 42,933.72

KARACHI: The KSE-100 Index continued its fall for the second successive session as correction along with profit-taking dragged stocks in the red on the last day of the week.

The KSE-100 Index started in the red and continued its gradual fall throughout the day to end a few points below the 43,000 level. At one point, the index suffered over a 630-point fall in intra-day trading before investors opted to buy at the day's lows.

Announcements by Tahirul Qadri and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf of protests against the government were also received negatively, giving an excuse to investors to book profits and await clarity.

At close on Friday, the KSE-100 Index ended with a decrease of 461.56 points or 1.06% to finish at 42,933.72 points.

JS Global analyst Maaz Mulla said that once again the KSE-100 Index succumbed to pressure as investors opted to book profits, as the index went below the 43,000 mark.



The local bourse made an intraday high of 41 points but shortly gave up to the bears to make an intraday low of 641 points to finally close down at 42,934 level.

TRG (-3.04%) and WTL (-3.45%) from the technology and communication sector were the major volume leaders of the day. Major laggards at the bourse were PSO (-3.88%), DGKC (-4.93%), OGDC (-1.41%), ENGRO (-1.69%) and UBL (-1.14%) contributing -158 points.

Investors opted to book profits in the cement sector where heavyweights DGKC (-4.93%), KOHC (-2.19%), MLCF (-2.21%) and LUCK (-0.01%) lost value to close in the red zone.

The engineering sector remained under the hammer as the sector cumulatively lost 39 points, where ISL (-5%), ASTL (-4.07%) and INIL (-3.0%) declined the most. E&P sector declined from its previous day close, where PPL (-0.90%) and OGDC (-1.41%) were the major losers of the mentioned sector.



"Moving forward, we expect the market to remain under pressure on the back of political flux and recommend investors to stay cautious and book profits on strength," Mulla remarked.

Overall, trading volume decreased to 239 million shares, compared with Thursday's tally of 319 million.

Shares of 368 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 80 stocks closed higher, 276 declined while 12 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs10.3 billion.

TRG Pakistan was the volume leader with 26 million shares, losing Rs1.03 to close at Rs32.89. It was followed by WorldCall Telecom with 15.2 million shares, losing Rs0.10 to close at Rs2.80 and Azgard Nine with 14.1 million shares, losing Rs0.87 to close at Rs13.65.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs782 million during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.