KSE-100 rises 0.62%, closes above 40,000

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) saw investors cherry pick stocks on Friday as the benchmark KSE-100 Index closed the last session of the week with a 0.62% gain.

Persistent political and economic turmoil has played on investors' mind for the past few sessions. However, they resorted to buy stocks at attractive valuations on Friday as the market fell to its lowest level since November 2020.

At close on Friday, the KSE-100 index gained 245.55 points or 0.62% to close at 40,077.3.

The first half of the session began with a brief spike, but the market dipped soon after as investors chose to sell off their holdings while keeping in view the deteriorating macroeconomic fundamentals.

After 628-point fall, KSE-100 closes below 40,000 for first time since Nov 2020

The market fell to an intra-day low at noon but recovered marginally by the end of the first session. The index continued its recovery after the break.

Index heavy automobile, cement, chemical, fertiliser and oil sectors closed upward but the banking sector saw selling pressure and major names ended the day with a loss.

The benchmark KSE-100 index lost 4.75% on a weekly basis.

A report from Capital Stake stated recovering losses made during the day, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed last session of the week in green.

“Indices took a U-turn midday and closed the day positive,” it said.

A report from Arif Habib Limited stated the market witnessed a bearish momentum during the first session due to inflationary and political concerns.

However, bulls made a comeback for value hunting across the board as the benchmark KSE-100 closed in the green zone.

Main board volumes continued to remain dull although decent volumes were observed in third-tier stocks.

Rupee closes at new historic low against US dollar in inter-bank market

Meanwhile, Pakistan's rupee closed at yet another low, while foreign direct investment (FDI) increased by 91.8% on a year-on-year basis to $271.05 million in June 2022. The highest amount of investment came from China. Sector-wise, the power sector attracted the highest investment.

FY22 FDI surges 2.6pc to $1.868bn

Sectors driving the benchmark KSE-100 upward included fertiliser (82.54 points), technology and communication (69.89 points) and chemical (30.14 points).

Volume on the all-share index inched up to 171.27 million from 157.99 million on Thursday. Similarly, the value of shares traded increased to Rs4.74 billion from Rs4.28 billion recorded in the previous session.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 19.98 million shares, followed by Unity Foods with 18.96 million shares, and TPL Properties Limited with 16.81 million shares.

Shares of 317 companies were traded on Friday, of which 226 registered an increase, 72 recorded a fall, and 19 remained unchanged.