KARACHI: Bears strengthened their grip at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Thursday as the indices slid lower throughout the trading session.
The number of coronavirus cases is steadily rising throughout the country and the possibility of another lockdown is on the cards. Investors remained cautioned and resorted to dumping stocks.
The upcoming budget also increased fear of economic uncertainty despite assurances by the Finance Adviser Hafeez Shaikh that no new taxes will be levied in the budget.
The benchmark KSE 100 index lost 282.03 points (0.82%) and settled at 34,119.39 after a hectic day. The bourse lost 311.29 points and touched its intraday low of 34,090.13. The total volume of scripts was 104.188 million valued at Rs4.376 billion.
The lower bench KSE 30 index also dropped by 157.63 points (1.05%) and closed at 14.915.41 points. The total volume of scripts declined to 53.134 million.
The KMI 30 index depreciated by 589.77 points ending at 54,646.32, while the KSE All-Share index fell by 207.56 points closing at 24,469.55.
Out of total shares traded 91 advanced and 192 declined. Overall volumes increased from 129.95 million shares to 143.59 million shares.
TRG Pakistan (TRG -2.93%), Unity Foods (UNITY -1.61%) and Hascol Petroleum (HASCOL -1.51%) led the volume chart. The scripts had 11.32 million shares, 11.31 million shares and 8.11 million shares traded, respectively.
The sectors responsible for the negative trend of KSE 100 index included Banking sector (-91.10 points), Oil and Gas Exploration sector (-79.45 points) and Power Generation and Distribution sector (-33.04 points).
Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC -35.99 points), MCB Bank (MCB -33.99 points) and Hub Power Company (HUBC -30.34 points) chipped off maximum points from the index.
The Oil and Gas Exploration sector lost 1.77% from its cumulative market capitalization. The cement sector also suffered as it recorded the lowest sales for the month of May which dropped by 38 percent as compared to the preceding month.
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