The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) saw a lacklustre session on Thursday and the KSE-100 Index fell 0.43% as investors awaited positive developments to assume fresh positions.
Economic crisis and political turbulence played on investors’ mind and dragged the market downward.
At close on Thursday, the KSE-100 Index recorded a decrease of 179.95 points or 0.43% to close at 41,694.09.
KSE-100 rises 0.14% in range-bound session
Trading kicked off with a jump but the index became flat after initial hours. The market traded in a narrow range for the remaining part of the session and the KSE-100 Index closed in the red.
Automobile and fertiliser spaces closed with gains while cement, banking and oil sectors saw massive selling.
A report from Capital Stake stated that investors at the PSX witnessed tug-of-war between bulls and bears where the latter turned out victorious.
A report from Arif Habib Limited stated that a range-bound session was recorded at the PSX.
“The market opened in green zone and traded within a narrow range throughout the day reaching an intraday high of 244.99 points as investors await for the government and IMF to reach a SLA.”
Market participation remained dull due to the prevailing political uncertainty low volumes were recorded across the board as investor booked profit at the day end, it said.
On the economic front, the Pakistani rupee saw some respite against the US dollar, appreciating Re0.43 or 0.15% in the inter-bank market on Thursday to settled at 282.42.
Sectors driving the benchmark KSE-100 index lower included, oil and gas exploration (114.04 points), miscellaneous (66.97 points) and investment banking (23.29 points).
Volume on the all-share index rose to 234.7 million from 233.3 million on Wednesday. The value of shares traded fell to Rs7.5 billion from Rs8.4 billion recorded in the previous session.
Telecard Limited was the volume leader with 14.3 million shares followed by Ghani Global Holdings with 11.9 million shares and Maple Leaf Cement with 11.8 million shares.
Shares of 341 companies were traded on Thursday, of which 186 registered an increase, 128 recorded a fall and 27 remained unchanged.