Fifth session in red: KSE-100 falls 0.16% after volatile session

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) saw a volatile session on Friday and the KSE-100 Index offloaded 0.16% owing to lack of positive news flow.

No progress on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) deal added to the woes of investors.

At the end of the session, the benchmark index was down 67.87 points or 0.16% to close at 41,301.3.

Negativity persists at PSX, KSE-100 down 0.35%

Trading kicked off with a jump and the market hit its intra-day high in the initial hour. The market remained mostly in positive zone in the first session and closed 105.21 points higher. Selling pressure gripped the index in the second half of the day it erased all gains to close with a loss.

Index-heavy automobile, cement, banking, fertiliser and oil segments closed in the red.

A report from Arif Habib Limited stated that to sign off the week, a positive session was recorded at the PSX.

The market opened in the green but lack of triggers made the market trade with lacklustre sentiment.

“The 9th review of the IMF programme still remains stalled making the investors remain cautious,” it said. “Overall volumes remained dull while 3rd-tier equities continued to lead the volume board.”

A report from Capital Stake underlined that PSX ended last trading session of the week flat.

“Indices oscillated in both directions while volumes grew from last close,” it said.

On the economic front, rupee registered a marginal gain of Re0.18 or 0.06% against the US dollar in the inter-bank market on Friday to settle at 287.19.

Sectors dragging the benchmark KSE-100 index lower included banking sector (66.73 points), power generation and distribution (47.37 points) and fertilizer (40.83 points).

Volume on the all-share index rose to 156 million from 149.7 million on Thursday, while the value of shares traded surged to Rs3.8 billion from Rs3.6 billion recorded in the previous session.

TPL Properties was the volume leader with 24 million shares followed by K-Electric with 17.8 million shares and Hascol with 16.3 million shares.

Shares of 328 companies were traded on Friday, of which 109 registered an increase, 187 recorded a fall and 32 remained unchanged.