KARACHI: Bears held sway over the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) for the fourth consecutive session on Thursday amid rising concerns about the rupee depreciation and the continuing foreign selling spree.

According to Arif Habib Ltd, investors remained under pressure despite the PSX offering attractive valuations in terms of low price-to-earnings multiples and high dividend yields. “Technology stocks remained in the limelight throughout the day as traders placed bets on high-beta stocks to mark quick trading gains,” it said.

As a result, the KSE-100 index lost 427.95 points or 0.96 per cent to close at 43,935.75 points.

Market participation decreased 37.1pc to 195.2 million shares while the value of traded shares also declined 35.2pc to $48m.

Sectors taking away the highest number of points from the benchmark index included commercial banking (139.47 points), power generation and distribution (59.18 points), fertiliser (50.18 points), cement (48.17 points) and pharmaceutical (43.11 points).

Stocks that contributed significantly to the traded volume included TPL Properties Ltd (16.32m shares), Byco Petroleum Ltd (12.23m shares), The Hub Power Company Ltd (9.5m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (8.39m shares) and TRG Pakistan Ltd (7.94m shares).

Stocks that contributed positively to the index included Ghani Glass Ltd (7.43 points), Systems Ltd (5.29 points), National Refinery Ltd (4.73 points), Byco Petroleum Ltd (4.64 points) and Millat Tractors Ltd (3.96 points).

Shares that contributed negatively included The Hub Power Company Ltd (52.96 points), Habib Bank Ltd (46.49 points), Lucky Cement Ltd (29.74 points), United Bank Ltd (29.38 points) and The Searle Company Ltd (25.01 points).

Stocks recording the biggest declines in percentage terms included The Searle Company Ltd, which went down 5.06pc, followed by Lotte Chemical Pakistan Ltd (4.34pc), National Bank of Pakistan Ltd (4.06pc), ICI Pakistan Ltd (3.25pc) and The Hub Power Company Ltd (3.12pc).

Foreign investors rema­ined net sellers as they offloaded shares worth $9.5m on a net basis.

Published in Dawn, November 26th, 2021