A range-bound session on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) ended on Thursday with the benchmark KSE-100 Index inching up by only 42 points from the preceding close.
The KSE-100 started the session positive as it briefly crossed 75,000.
However, a selling spree soon emerged and pushed the index into the negative territory.
At close, the benchmark index settled at 74,878.12, up by 41.82 points or 0.06%.
“Pakistan Equities had a mixed day where bullish and bearish forces fought whole day to grab the rein of market momentum and eventually bulls had the day on their name,” brokerage house Topline Securities said in its post-market report.
On Wednesday, a bearish sentiment prevailed at the PSX as the benchmark index fell below 75,000, losing 681.19 points during the day.
“Contrary to yesterday’s momentum, the day [Thursday] started on a positive note initially. However, investors chose to do some profit-taking, which compelled the benchmark index to go into negative territory where the index made an intraday low at 74,585.
“Nonetheless, value hunters rescued the market at day’s low which ultimately led the index to have a positive closing,” Topline Securities added.
During the day, E&P, banking, and fertiliser sector stocks contributed negatively as MARI, MCB, ENGRO, FFC & PSEL lost 37 points. On the other hand, some stocks like MTL, SRVI and PPL experienced some buying interest, resulting in a combined positive contribution of 39 points.
Asian stocks were a sea of red on Thursday and bonds slid on bets global interest rates would stay higher for longer, as investors looked to key inflation readings at the end of the week for further clues on the future path of monetary policy.
Citing economic conditions, Lucky Core Industries Limited’s (LCI) subsidiary Lucky TG (Private) Limited (LTG) said it was buying back its shares in proportion to the company’s shareholding. LCI announced the development in its notice to the PSX.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee sustained losses for the third consecutive session, depreciating 0.04% against the US dollar in the inter-bank market on Thursday. At close, the local unit settled at 278.50, a loss of Re0.10 against the greenback, as per the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
Volume on the all-share index marginally increased to 410.57 million from 408.07 million a session ago.
The value of shares decreased to Rs14.92 billion from Rs16.50 billion in the previous session.
Fauji Cement was the volume leader with 42.51 million shares, followed by Dewan Cement with 26.32 million shares, and Dewan Motors with 25.94 million shares.
Shares of 413 companies were traded on Thursday, of which 161 registered an increase, 196 recorded a fall, while 56 remained unchanged.
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