LAHORE - The Pakistan Stock Exchange on Thursday closed negative for the second consecutive session, with the KSE 100-sahre index shedding 411 points to close 42,942 points. However, volumes settled at 220 million shares, up 6 percent from Wednesday’s closing.
Investors treaded cautiously ahead of the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) key meeting in Paris next week (Feb 18-23, 2018) as USA and few European countries plan to table a motion with FATF, to put Pakistan back on its watchlist (Jurisdictions with deficient anti-money laundering regimes), where it was last put from 2012-2015.
Interest was seen in mid-tier banks amid attractive valuation. HMB, FABL and BAHL rose 3.9 percent, 3.0 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively.
Top 10 index point decliners were LUCK (-2.3 percent), DAWH (-3.0 percent), HUBC (-1.9 percent), POL (-2.1 percent), NESTLE (-4.3 percent), PPL (-1.1 percent), SEARL (-3.7 percent), FFC (-1.6 percent), SNGP (-2.7 percent) & TRG (-5 percent), withholding 240pts.
Sector-wise data suggests that fertilizer sector eroded 75 points from the index, followed by cement and oil & gas marketing that cumulatively took away 126 index points.
The Descon Oxychem announced its 2QFY18 results where the company reported revenues of Rs504m, down 2.5 percent. The Hascol Petroleum has entered into a joint operations agreement with Total Parco Limited (TPPL) wherein TPPL will buy assets worth Rs400m from the company at its Sahiwal and Daulatpur oil storage depots.