ISLAMABAD, March 30 (Xinhua) -- The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) fell to a three-month lowest point on Thursday as investors trimmed their positions amid continued domestic jitters.
The Pakistan Stock Exchange's benchmark KSE 100-Index shed 0.88 percent or 426.30 points to close at the lowest level in the Calendar Year 2017 of 47,949.33 points on Thursday, when compared with 48,375.63 points posted on Wednesday.
This is the first time that the key index has given away the psychological barrier of 48,000 points this year. The key index was recorded at 47,806.97 points on Dec. 30, 2016.
The KSE All-Share Index fell by 0.56 percent or 183.40 points to 32,775.55 points, the KSE 30-Index shrank by 0.90 percent or 230.44 points to 25,512.17 points, the KMI 30-Index declined by 0.78 percent or 638.33 points to 81,370.21 points, whereas the Islamic All-Share Index dropped 0.71 percent or 163.85 points to 22,791.80 points.
During Thursday's trading session, the main index moved in a broader range of 683.50 points as it touched an intraday high of 48,504.40 points as against an intraday low of 47,820.90 points.
During first half of the session, some interest was seen in oil and gas exploration stocks on the back of an uptick in international oil prices. However, oil stocks came under pressure in the second half due to the overall negative sentiments in the market.
Heavyweights like Habib Bank Limited and Hub Power Company contributed 98 points to the overall fall as they gave away 1.2 percent and 1.8 percent value, respectively.
Bank of Punjab announced its earnings per share of 3.12 rupees along with 70 percent right at 2 rupees premium. This led the stock price to close at its lower limit.
Market volumes depleted by 11.39 percent or 31.02 million shares to 241.25 million shares on Thursday as against 272.27 million shares recorded on Wednesday.
Market capitalization deflated by 0.55 percent or 53.11 billion rupees (499.13 million U.S. dollars) to 9.533 trillion rupees whereas trade value trimmed down by 21.68 percent or 2.991 billion rupees to 10.805 billion rupees.
Among 386 active scrips on Thursday, the prices of 285 issues moved southward, 84 managed to stay northward, whereas values of 17 other companies remained static.
Azgard Nine Limited, Bank of Punjab, and Jahangir Siddiqui Company Limited were the top traded companies with turnovers of 34.033 million shares, 25.616 million shares, and 19.893 million shares, respectively.
Philip Morris Pakistan was the top price gainer with an increment of 102.05 rupees to close at 2,699.54 rupees while on the flip side Wyeth Pakistan Limited XD led the major price shedders with a decrement of 132.45 rupees to finish at 2,545.73 rupees.
The U.S. dollar changed hands at about 106.40 rupees Thursday.
