KARACHI - Bears further tightened their grip on Pakistan Stock Exchange on Friday as the 100-index, led by oil and cement stocks, conceded another 274 points (down 0.69%) and closed at 39464.65 points. The index has lost 557 points during last four days.
The negativity in the market was led by the oil sector that remained under pressure as global crude oil prices continued to slide on rising US inventory figures. Top laggards of the sector were POL (down 2.10%) and MARI (2.08%).
Concerns over the possibility of over-supply situation in the cement industry post expansions by cement manufacturers continued to hamper the cement sector's sentiments as more than half of the listed cement companies have already announced expansions. Lower than expected CPI for the month of August kept the mood dull in the banking sector, stated analyst Ahmed Saeed Khan.
Volumes decreased by 9.8% to 329m shares. Value also decreased by 7.3% to Rs12.6b/ $121m.
Investors shed their positions due to recent expansion plan of many big cement players like KOHC, LUCK and DGKC which led stocks to decline by 5%, 2.8% and 2.7 respectively. MLCF closed at its lower limit as well as investors fear expansion plans from MLCF which will result in oversupply of cement, said dealers at sales desk Topline brokerage.
Oil stocks remained in pressure as international crude price further declined. Local oil stocks like PPL, POL and OGDC contributed 56 points to the fall in index.
