KSE-100 recovers to end marginally negative

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) endured a topsy-turvy session on Thursday owing to political uncertainty and the KSE-100 Index closed in the red for the seventh session on the back of sell-off emerging from investors’ panic over contempt of court hearing of former prime minister Imran Khan.

Later, the Islamabad High Court’s decision not to indict Imran owing to his apology helped ease off the pressure at the equity market and helped the market recover from an over 500-point fall in intra-day trading.

The KSE-100 Index finished the day with a drop of 37.63 points or 0.09% to close at 40,927.95.

KSE-100 falls below 41,000-point barrier owing to rupee’s slide

Trading began with a decline and the market kept declining for most part of the day. Driven by political clarity, the KSE-100 Index staged a U-shaped recovery in final hour as the market saw renewed buying however, the index still closed with a loss.

Due to the uncertainty, oil, chemical and fertiliser sectors ended in the red however, automobile, cement and banks closed on mixed note.

A report from Arif Habib Limited stated that PSX witnessed a negative session due to prevailing political noise.

“The benchmark KSE-100 index nosedived following the same trend from the previous sessions although in the last trading hour value buying was recorded,” it said. “Volumes continued to thrive in the main board whereas hefty volumes were observed in the third tier stocks.”

A report from Capital Stake noted that the PSX ended a bumpy session on Thursday flat.

“Indices traded in red for most part of the day, while volumes surged from last close,” it said.

On the economic front, the current account deficit of Pakistan clocked in at $703 million in August 2022 against $1.5 billion in same period last year.

Moreover, the foreign direct investment (FDI) in Pakistan fell 26.1% during the first two months of the ongoing fiscal year (FY23), clocking in at just $169.5 million, revealed the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) data.

On the other hand, rupee saw no respite and fell for 15th successive session to close at Rs239.71 per dollar.

Sectors driving the benchmark KSE 100 index in downward direction included banking (19.34 points), automobile assembler (16.32 points) and investment banks and others (11.27 points).

Volume on the all-share index rose to 190.1 million from 170.4 million on Wednesday. On the other hand, the value of shares traded surged to Rs6.3 billion from Rs4.8 billion recorded in the previous session.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 20 million shares, followed by TRG Pakistan with 18.6 million shares and TRG Pakistan with 17.6 million shares

Shares of 328 companies were traded on Thursday, of which 106 registered an increase, 203 recorded a fall, and 19 remained unchanged.