The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) landed in the red on Thursday after a week-long bull run, with the benchmark KSE-100 index losing 247 points to close at 44,817.
The market had opened higher to hit the day's high of 44,179 but could not sustain momentum, subsequently shedding points for most of the session and hitting a low of 44,730 towards close.
In all, 245.7 million shares worth Rs9.94 billion were traded in the session. Of the total of 360 traded scrips, 154 advanced, 182 declined and 24 remained.
"The market opened on a positive note but failed to make a follow-through during the day as investors opted to book profits in specific sectors such as oil and cement," a note by Elixir Securities read.
The engineering sector dominated trading with 32.0m shares traded; commercial banking followed with 28.3m shares traded.
Volumes were led by:
Dost Steels Ltd: 24.8m shares traded [+5.45pc];
B.O.Punjab: 17.5m shares traded [+2.82pc];
K-Electric Ltd: 13.9m shares traded [+3.20pc];
Azgard Nine: 12.5m shares [+0.07pc];
Fauji Foods Ltd: 9.8m shares traded [-3.73pc].
