Driven by energy sector’s recovery, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) saw a turnaround as the benchmark KSE-100 Index gained nearly 1% during trading on Monday.
The KSE-100 witnessed a strong selling spree at the start of the session, which pushed it to an intra-day low of 59,191.86. However, bulls returned to the PSX and helped the index recover the losses.
At close, the benchmark index settled at 60,459.75, up by 586.79 points or 0.98%.
Political uncertainty continued to weigh on investor sentiment, much like the previous week.
However, after hitting the intra-day low, the KSE-100 began its upward movement that continued till session end.
Index-heavy stocks including OGDC, PPL and SNGPL traded in the green.
As per reports, some positive progress has been made in the matter of government formation between the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), with the latter expressing willingness to join the federal cabinet.
The agreement to this effect has been reached during a meeting of coordination committees of both parties in Islamabad. During the meeting, several proposals regarding government formation were deliberated.
On the corporate front, Oil & Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) announced the discovery of “significant” hydrocarbon reserves at Khewari block, located in the Khairpur district, Sindh.
During the previous week, the PSX remained under severe pressure and nosedived to book huge losses due to panic selling on investor concerns over the deteriorating political situation in the country after general elections.
The KSE-100 index plunged by 3,070.79 points on a week-on-week basis and closed at 59,872.96 points.
Globally, Asian shares were off to a stuttering start on Monday as fading chances for early rate cuts globally soured the mood and Chinese markets returned from holiday with only muted gains.
A holiday for US markets also made for thin trading, while the latest surge in tech stocks is set to be tested by results from AI diva Nvidia on Wednesday.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan edged down 0.1%, after bouncing 2% last week. Japan’s Nikkei dipped 0.3%, having surged more than 4% last week to stop just short of its all-time high.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee remained unchanged against the US dollar in the inter-bank market on Monday. At close, the local unit settled at 279.36 against the greenback, as per the State Bank of Pakistan.
Volume on the all-share index decreased to 261.8 million from 314.2 million a session ago.
The value of shares declined to Rs9.91 billion from Rs12.24 billion in the previous session.
P.I.A.C.(A) was the volume leader with 21.40 million shares, followed by WorldCall Telecom with 20.03 million shares, and Pak Refinery with 15.16 million shares.
Shares of 330 companies were traded on Monday, of which 170 registered an increase, 139 recorded a fall, while 21 remained unchanged.
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