KSE-100 slides over lack of investor participation

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) recorded a negative session on Monday as the KSE-100 Index slid 0.56% owing to thin trade volumes.

Investors chose to remain on the sidelines amid selloff which dragged the market downward.

By the end of the session, the KSE-100 Index was down 242.12 points or 0.56% to close at 42,850.83.

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Trading began with a decline and the session as marred by profit taking. The index remained range-bound during midday but value buying, towards the end of the day, provide some relief to the market.

Index-heavy automobile, cement, oil and banking sectors closed with losses.

A report from Arif Habib Limited stated that the benchmark KSE-100 index started the week off poorly.

“The market started off in the red and proceeded to trade in the same range reaching an intra-day low of 42,761.88 points due to lack of investors’ participation,” it said. “Mainboard activity remained flat as the third tier stocks continued to be the volume leaders.”

On the economic front, rupee registered another marginal decline, falling 0.02% or Re0.05 against the US dollar in the inter-bank market to close at 221.69.

Sectors contributing to the performance included exploration and production (-86.5 points), cement (-38.4 points), fertiliser (-37.2 points), commercial banks (-37 points) and miscellaneous (-31.3 points).

Volume on the all-share index declined to 185.5 million from 232.8 million on Friday. The value of shares traded dropped to Rs6 billion from Rs7.6 billion recorded in the previous session.

Hascol was the volume leader with 26.6 million shares, followed by PTCL with 12.8 million shares and Lotte Chemical Limited with 10.2 million shares

Shares of 353 companies were traded on Monday, of which 120 registered an increase, 211 recorded a fall, and 22 remained unchanged.