BRIndex30 decreased by 330.77 points or 1.45 percent to close at 22,484.20 points with a turnover of 174.780 million shares.
The benchmark KSE-100 index declined by 644.23 points or 1.50 percent and closed at 42,358.61 points. Due to selling pressure, daily volumes on the ready counter increased to 241.681 million shares as compared to 136.375 million shares traded Wednesday.
Foreign investors remained net sellers of shares worth $ 10.9 million. The market capitalization declined by Rs 146 billion to Rs 8.691 trillion. Out of total 345 active scrips, 276 closed in negative, only 56 in positive while the value of 13 stocks remained unchanged.
K-Electric was the volume leader with 48.332 million shares. However, it lost Re 0.14 to close at Rs 5.50 followed by Summit Bank that closed at Rs 2.18, down Re 0.03 with 21.979 million shares. Unilever Foods and Sapphire Textile were the top gainers with Rs 200.00 and Rs 47.90, respectively to close at Rs 8,300.00 and Rs 1,139.99 while Colgate Palmolive and Pak Tobacco were the top losers declining by Rs 161.50 and Rs 111.98, respectively to close at Rs 3,068.50 and Rs 2,134.01.
BR Commercial Banks Index plunged by 207.84 points or 2.36 percent to close at 8,592.36 points with total turnover of 47.632 million shares.
BR Cement Index declined by 92.7 points or 1.93 percent to close at 4,707.38 points with 29.097 million shares.
BR Oil and Gas Index decreased by 74.41 points or 1.36 percent to close at 5,415.66 points with 6.632 million shares.
BR Tech. & Comm. Index lost 19.36 points or 1.62 percent to close at 1,174.21 points with 12.942 million shares.
BR Power Generation and Distribution Index closed at 6,055.57 points, down 95.97 points or 1.56 percent with 49.251 million shares.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that post Moody's report on Pakistan with negative outlook from previous verdict of stable reverberated the second day, which was further accentuated by selling by mutual funds.
Selling was observed across the board and due to lack of interest from buyers prices were seen on the lower end. An interesting phenomenon observed Thursday and is perhaps carrying for the past 2 sessions is the growing number of Repo transactions, which increase the volume but do not affect the rates significantly. Apparently, Amnesty is causing the portfolio bearers to adjust positions before end June.
He said following sessions will mark the beginning of roll-over week and due to the higher volume of short sell contracts in certain scrips, there is a possibility of increase in index due to short coverage. Nonetheless, mutual funds are likely to continue selling, which may keep the pressure on Index.
Sectors contributing to the market performance include Banks (down 196 points), E&P (down 84 points), Cement (down 56 points), Fertilizer (down 45 points), Auto (down 40 points).
Scripts that contributed positively include PIBTL (up 17 points), BAHL (up 7 points), ISL (up 6 points), NRL (up 5 points) and SHFA (up 3 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include HBL (down 82 points), UBL (down 56 points), PPL (down 39 points), PAKT (down 29 points) and POL (down 21 points).