KSE-100 breaks losing streak, Octopus Digital's IPO makes waves

The benchmark KSE-100 Index broke a three-day losing streak, finishing 228 points higher although amid lower volume on Thursday.

At close, the KSE-100 finished with a gain of 228.41 points or 0.49% to settle at 46,625.12.

On the market news front, technology company Octopus Digital scored high on the first day of its IPO book-building, where the offer volume (27.35 million shares) was met in the first half hour.

"After the bidding session opened, against issue size of 27.35 million, offers crossed 7.7x times by the end of the first day," said Arif Habib Limited in its post-market comment.

There is another entire day of book-building left. By close on the first day, Octopus Digital received offers of 211,080,012 shares, with the strike price having already reached its upper limit of Rs40.6.

This also contributed to a bullish sentiment in the technology sector with Avanceon Limited, the parent company of Octopus Digital and listed on the exchange, finishing at the upper circuit.

KSE-100 falls another 333 points as selling pressure persists after MSCI decision

On Thursday, sectors painting the benchmark KSE-100 index in the green included technology and communication (53.92 points), fertiliser (45.65 points) and oil and gas exploration (41.86 points).

Volume on the all-share index decreased from 477.87 million on Wednesday to 396.43 million on Thursday. The value of shares traded during the session, however, recorded an increase to Rs16.53 billion from Rs14.69 billion.

Ghani Global Holdings was the volume leader with 56.82 million shares, followed by Telecard Limited with 41.12 million shares, and WorldCall Telecom at 20.39 million shares.

Shares of 525 companies were traded on Thursday, of which 252 registered an increase, 245 recorded a fall, while 28 remained unchanged.