- Players opt to offload their stockholdings at attractive valuations.
- KSE-100 index loses over 300 points.
- Shares of 343 companies traded during the session.
KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) endured another volatile session on Thursday, as investors were observed weighing the impact of ongoing political uncertainty and deteriorating macroeconomic indicators after a brief pause.
Pushed by these factors, the market players opted to offload their stockholdings at attractive valuations and the KSE-100 index lost over 300 points.
Fresh devaluation of the rupee against the US dollar, as it dropped another Re1 on a day-on-day basis in the interbank market, dented the confidence of market participants.
Moreover, uncertainty about the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Executive Board meeting scheduled to be held on August 29 to resume the programme haunted the trading environment at the bourse.
Earlier, the trading started on a positive note; however, it failed to sustain the rally due to late-session profit-taking and the index, after oscillating in a narrow range, finally settled in the red zone for the second consecutive day.
At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index closed at 43,032.57 points with a decrease of 305.40 points or 0.70%.
A report from Arif Habib Limited noted that the market remained range bound throughout the day due to concerns over rising inflation and political noise.
“The benchmark KSE-100 index opened in the positive zone but dull activity was observed. In the last trading hour, profit taking was witnessed across the board which dragged the index in the red zone,” the brokerage house noted.
Volumes remained dry in the mainboard although hefty volumes were witnessed in the third-tier stocks.
Sectors contributing to the performance included power (-142.4 points), fertiliser (-32 points), exploration and production (-28.4 points), banks (-27.6 points), and technology (-25 points).
Shares of 343 companies were traded during the session. At the close of trading, 110 scrips closed in the green, 209 in the red, and 24 remained unchanged.
Overall trading volumes dropped to 208.11 million shares compared with Wednesday’s tally of 256.47 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs7.78 billion.
WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 18.59 million shares traded, losing Rs0.03 to close at Rs1.32. It was followed by Hascol Petroleum with 10.50 million shares traded, losing Rs0.08 to close at Rs6.74 and PIAA with 9.30 million shares traded, losing Rs0.38 to close at Rs4.97.
