KSE-100 ends with marginal gain in lacklustre session

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed a mixed session on Wednesday as a combination of buying and selling pressures kept the benchmark KSE-100 index in a narrow range for most of the day.

Although the benchmark index remained under pressure, it still closed with a marginal gain, after two sessions in the red.

By the end of the day, the KSE-100 index closed with an increase of 57.22 points or 0.14%, at 41,159.79 points.

KSE-100 falls 0.59% amid low volumes

Trading began with a jump and the market hit an intra-day high of 41,334.9 points in initial minutes. However, the KSE-100 index traded range-bound for the rest of the day as investors awaited positive developments before making fresh buys.

Uncertainty made the market shed some of the gains by the end of the session but the index still closed on a positive note.

All index-heavy sectors including automobile, cement, banks, fertiliser and oil stocks witnessed buying activity.

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A report from Arif Habib Limited stated that the benchmark KSE-100 index witnessed a sluggish session.

Investor participation continued to remain dry due to concerns regarding rate hike in the upcoming monetary policy and rupee depreciation against the dollar.

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Main board activity remained dull but decent volumes were recorded in the third tier stocks, it said.

On the economic front, the rupee lost further ground and depreciated 1.06 or 0.51% against the US dollar to close the day at Rs207.99 level.

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Sectors pulling the benchmark KSE-100 index higher included banking (36.62 points), cement (14.59 points) and technology and communication (14.21 points).

Volume on the all-share index jumped to 98.25 million from 76.9 million on Tuesday. The value of shares traded improved slightly to Rs2.7 billion from Rs2.4 billion recorded in the previous session.

Agritech Limited was the volume leader with 25.04 million shares, followed by Unity Foods with 5.39 million shares, and Azgard Nine with 3.6 million shares.

Shares of 308 companies were traded on Wednesday, of which 173 registered an increase, 115 recorded a fall, and 20 remained unchanged.