The benchmark KSE-100 index closed lower on Tuesday as the stock market came under pressure amid uncertainty over the monetary policy announcement later in the day, which, as expected by many, left the interest rate unchanged.
A plunge in global crude oil prices stopped investors from accumulating stocks with sellling pressure weighing on sentiment. The market hit an intra-day low of 386 points, however, it later recouped some of the losses.
At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded a decrease of 240.04 points, or 0.56%, to settle at 42,299.19.
The banking sector sustained selling pressure that kept stock prices on the lower side. The cement sector continued to lead the volume with trading in 60.9 million shares, followed by oil and gas marketing companies (27.6 million) and banks (12.4 million), the report added.
JS Global analyst
Major losers of the day were HBL (-1.2%),
ICI (+5.5%) from the chemical sector declared its 1HFY20 result, where the company posted earnings per share of
Furthermore, active participation was witnessed in the cement sector where
On the flipside,
'Moving forward, we recommend investors to stay cautious,' stated Mulla in the report.
Overall, trading volumes decreased to 189 million shares compared with Monday's tally of 198.5 million. The value of shares traded during the day was
Shares of 356 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 130 stocks closed higher, 206 declined and 20 remained unchanged.
Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of
© Pakistan Press International, source