KSE-100 ends jittery session on a flat note

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed another volatile session with the benchmark KSE-100 Index ending the day flat on Thursday as investors remained cautious over ongoing uncertain political and economic conditions.

Range-bound activity was witnessed at the bourse as the benchmark index reached an intraday high of 125 points and a low of 82 points. At close, it settled at 39,848.35, a loss of 31.54 points or 0.08%.

KSE-100 down 202 points amid economic uncertainty

A report from Arif Habib Limited (AHL) stated that the benchmark index opened in the green but traded both ways activity remained sluggish throughout the trading session.

“Investors opted to remain on the sideline on account of the impending delay in the signing of a staff-level agreement between the government and International Monetary Fund (IMF) along with the prevailing political uncertainty affecting investors’ confidence,” AHL said.

On the economic front, the rupee inched up against the US dollar and appreciated Re0.26 or 0.09% in the inter-bank market on Thursday to settle at 283.66.

Sectors painting the benchmark index in red included, miscellaneous (37.90 points), technology and communication (21.39 points) and investment banking (12.75 points).

Volume on the all-share index decreased to 88.7 million from 108.8 million on Wednesday. However, the value of shares traded inched up to Rs3.9 billion from Rs3.2 billion recorded in the previous session.

Telecard Limited was the volume leader with 6.21 million shares followed by Pak Elektron with 6.15 million shares and Engro CorpXD with 5.43 million shares.

Shares of 286 companies were traded on Friday, of which 123 registered an increase, 138 recorded a fall and 25 remained unchanged.