KARACHI

Bears continued to run the Pakistan Stock Exchange on second consecutive day on Wednesday. As a result, the PSX benchmark index conceded another 203.46 points (down 0.64%) to close at 41,469.70 points. The index has lost 457 points in two sessions. Profit taking was seen in index heavy weight stocks yesterday, which led the index in red zone, brokers said.
Traded volume also decreased to 124m shares as compared to 166m shares of Tuesday while value also decreased to Rs5.4b from 9.4b.
Investors booked profits in stocks of oil exploration companies. Oil & Gas Development Company (OGDC) declined 1.7% and Pakistan Petroleum (PPL) dropped 0.9%. Some banking sector stocks were also in the red as investors closed out their positions. Habib Bank (HBL) and MCB Bank (MCB) were down 1.4% and 1.2%, respectively. Hub Power Company (HUBC) and United Bank’s (UBL) results, which were in line with market estimates, failed to excite investors. Resultantly, the stocks fell by 0.8% and 0.6%, respectively, said a post of Topline Security.
Stock closed lower on concerns for foreign outflow, dismal exports and weak earnings outlook at PSX, stated analyst Ahsan Mehanti. Uncertainty in global equities, falling crude prices and concerns for outcome of ongoing regulatory oversight played a catalyst role in the bearish close in the earnings season ignoring record results in banking and cement sector, the analyst added. Out of total 313 active companies which participated in the session, 208 closed in negative, 90 in positive while 15 went unchanged.
Major activity was witnessed in the stocks of Dewan Motor, WorldCall Telecom and TRG Pak with traded volume of 13.2m, 11m and 10m shares respectively.