KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) ended the second session of the rollover week on a flat note on Tuesday, with the benchmark KSE-100 index crawling up nearly 50 points.
The index oscillated between red and green zones as certain sectors experienced selling pressure. Investors were concerned over rising political tensions, which prevented the market from advancing further.
On the second day of the week, investors decided to liquidate positions and wait and watch for market direction, going forward.
Investors remained concerned about the continuous depreciation of the rupee against the US dollar as the local unit plunged to an all-time low of 232.93.
Earlier, trading began on a positive note but unfortunately, tables turned and the bourse failed to sustain the momentum with the bourse remaining largely volatile. After mid-day bears and bulls tried to wrestle control of the market.
At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index closed at 39,894.05 points with an increase of 50.03 points or 0.13%.
A report from Arif Habib Limited noted that the market remained sideways throughout the day due to concerns over rising political and economic unrest.
“The PSX opened in the negative zone as rupee continued to decline against the US dollar,” the brokerage house stated, adding that the volumes continued to remain dry on the main board although decent volumes were witnessed in the third-tier stocks.
Sectors contributing to the performance include banks (+23.6 points), exploration and production (+18.7 points), oil marketing companies (+16.9 points), technology (+15.1 points), and textile (+14.8 points).
Shares of 302 companies were traded during the session. At the close of trading, 148 scrips closed in the green, 130 in the red, and 24 remained unchanged.
Overall trading volumes rose to 131.86 million shares compared with Monday’s tally of 75.43 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs4.20 billion.
TPL Properties was the volume leader with 19.62 million shares traded, gaining Rs0.34 to close at Rs17.32. It was followed by Cynergyico PK Limited with 11.88 million shares traded, losing Rs0.10 to close at Rs4.85 and Lotte Chemical Pakistan with 11.11 million shares traded, gaining Rs1.21 to close at Rs27.
