KARACHI - Bearish activities were witnessed at PSX on late session profit-taking in the post earning season.
The benchmark shares index traded between an intraday high of 228 points and intraday low of 329 points to finally close at around 48,306 points.
The big banks HBL (slip 1.3 percent), UBL (3.0 percent) & MCB (0.54 percent), which eroded 126 points from the index, likely a combination of declining crude prices boding negatively on inflation outlook coupled with the spill-over effects of rumours of negligence, leading to a management shake-up, said analyst at Topline brokerage.
KEL (slip 4.29 percent) and SSGC (1.09 percent) closed in the red zone on the back of the news that Abraaj Group will not be able to conclude KEL deal with Shanghai Electric within the stipulated time due to its failure to settle financial due with SSGC and NTDC and would now require extension from Shanghai Electric and SECP, observed analyst Arhum Ghous.
UBL (lose 3.02 percent) in the banking sector shed value as investors remained sceptical about market noise regarding the bank.
Moreover, PAEL (dip 1.53 percent) lost value to close in the red zone as the company declared its year end result for 2016, posting an EPS of Rs7.51/share which was lower than the street estimate.
This year end result was accompanied by a final cash dividend of Rs1.75/share. FFC (rose 0.70 percent) in the fertilizer sector closed in the green on the back of the news that HUBC has planned to divest its 40 percent stake in Thar Energy Limited (TEL) by offering 30 percent of its stake to FFC and 10 percent stake to China Machinery Engineering Company (CMEC), market participants said.
Overall, volume increased by 5.6 percent to 206 million shares, while value declined by 9.2 percent Rs10.8 billion/$103.9 million.
