KSE-100 ends flat owing to late session selling

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) saw a disorderly session on Wednesday and the KSE-100 Index ended flat after trading on both sides of the spectrum.

Political instability coupled with economic uncertainty encouraged investors to book profits on their holdings.

At close, the KSE-100 Index was up 18.02 points or 0.04% to settle at 41,117.32.

KSE-100 falls 0.23% in rangebound trading session

Trading began with a jump and the market hit intra-day high in early hours. From this point onward, a selling spree gripped the index which erased all gains and made it close flat.

Index heavy automobile, cement, chemical, banking and fertiliser sectors ended the day on mixed note. The oil segment closed with gain.

A report from Arif Habib Limited stated that another range bound session was recorded today at the PSX.

The day began with favourable sentiments regarding the news for the renewal of the IMF program, reaching an intraday high of 242.92 points keeping the PSX in green.

“However, in the last trading hour profit selling was witnessed resulting the index to close in the red,” it said. “Investor engagement was dilatory, with third-tier equities leading the volume board.”

A report from Capital Stake cited that PSX ended another session on Wednesday flat.

“Indices accumulated gains for most part of the day until finally settling flat,” it said. “Volumes increased from last close.”

Investors remained wary as no positive developments have yet been made regarding IMF deal. Noise on the political front also contributed to the dull trend, the report added.

Sectors driving the benchmark KSE-100 index north included textile composite (26.97 points), food and personal care products (23.61 points) and oil and gas exploration (22.65 points).

Volume on the all-share index inched up to 105.6 million from 91.5 million on Tuesday, while the value of shares traded rose to Rs2.6 billion from Rs2.4 billion recorded in the previous session.

Hascol was the volume leader with 21.5 million shares followed by WorldCall Telecom with 6.25 million shares and HBL Total Treasury with 5 million shares.

Shares of 313 companies were traded on Wednesday, of which 136 registered an increase, 152 recorded a fall and 25 remained unchanged.