KARACHI - Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) benchmark KSE 100-index registered a decline of 66 points on Tuesday and closed at 40,725 points. Bullish sentiments prevailed during the initial hours of the day, taking KSE-100 index up by 562 points. However, negative sentiments dragged the index down due to profit-taking and political uncertainty, dealers said.

Yesterday's major index movers were INDU (up 2.18%), HCAR (5%), PSMC (5%), POL (3.49%) and SEARL (4.88%) as they cumulatively contributed 102 points to the index gain. On the flipside, LUCK (down 1.44%), ATRL (2.34%), SNGP (4.05%), HUBC (2.10%) and ISL (3.39%) were the major laggards of the index, cumulatively eroding 98 points from the index.

ISL (down 3.39%) from the steel sector announced its 1QFY18 result, where the company posted an EPS of Rs2.31. MCB (-0.30%), NBP (-1.65%) and HBL (0.83%) from the commercial banking sector also shed points. AKBL closed in green zone (up 2.28%) as it announced its result for 9M2017 where company posted EPS of Rs3.35 and DPS of Rs1, stated analyst at JS Global.

Average daily volumes grew by 34% DoD to 167m shares as news of additional regulatory duty provided impetus to day trading. Likewise, average daily value traded significantly went up by 61% DoD to settle at Rs9.7b/USD92m given higher activity in main board items.

Volume leaders during the day were ASL with 15m traded shares, TRG with 11m shares and DSL with 9.5m shares traded. Symbols of 389 active companies were traded in the session of which 147 concluded in advance, 226 in decline while 16 remained unchanged.