PSX sees range-bound session, KSE-100 falls 0.13%

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed a lacklustre session on Wednesday and the KSE-100 Index traded in a narrow range to end with a meagre loss.

Lack of positive triggers to give a direction to the market kept the index under pressure.

At the end of the session, the KSE-100 Index was down 53.12 points or 0.13% to close at 40,985.46.

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Following a short lived spike, the market remained range-bound for most part of the session. It entered the red zone in the final hours.

Automobile, cement, chemical and banking spaces closed in the green while oil sector closed mixed.

A report from Capital Stake stated that the PSX ended a volatile session on Wednesday flat.

“Indices traded in green for most part of the day until finally ending flat, while volumes depreciated from last close,” it said.

A report from Arif Habib Limited stated that a range-bound session was recorded at PSX.

“The market opened in the green and traded within the same range as investor participation remained sluggish due to the continuous depreciation of the rupee against the dollar, causing the benchmark KSE-100 to close the trading day in the red zone.”

Volumes remained reasonable across the board, it said.

On the economic front, Consumer Price Index (CPI)-based inflation clocked in at 27.6% on year-on-year basis in January 2023.

Moreover, rupee ended the day with a loss of Rs0.94 or 0.35% to close at Rs268.83.

Sectors dragging the benchmark KSE-100 index lower included miscellaneous (81.42 points), oil and gas exploration (34.81 points) and technology and communication (22.28 points).

Volume on the all-share index fell to 131 million from 153.3 million on Tuesday. The value of shares dropped to Rs5.9 billion from Rs7.4 billion recorded in the previous session.

Pak Petroleum was the volume leader with 9.5 million shares, followed by PIA (A) with 8.35 million shares and Gul Ahmed with 8.35 million shares.

Shares of 323 companies were traded on Wednesday, of which 158 registered an increase, 133 recorded a fall and 32 remained unchanged.