KARACHI: Bears continued to dominate the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Tuesday, with the benchmark KSE-100 index losing over 500 mainly due to a rate spike in the monetary policy meeting.
Trading began on a bullish note, pushing the benchmark KSE-100 index closer to an intra-day high of 46,828.20 in early hours. However, the market recorded only a slight movement from that point onwards.
In the final hour, selling pressure built up and profit-booking by investors eroded all the gains. The benchmark KSE-100 index fell 519.36 points or 1.12% on Tuesday, to close at 46,008.85 points.
Volumes increased from 194.7 million shares to 325.9 million shares (+67% day-on-day). The average traded value also increased by 53% to reach $73.1 million as against $47.9 million.
Telecard Limited was the volume leader with 28.1 million shares, gaining Rs0.05 to close at Rs22.06. It was followed by WorldCall Limited with 26.4 million shares, losing Rs0.08 to close at Rs3.11, and TPL Corp with 21.4 million shares, gaining Rs0.65 to close at Rs24.98.
During the session, shares of 519 listed companies were traded. At the end of the session, 103 stocks closed in the green, 398 in the red, and 18 remained unchanged.
Sectors contributing to the performance included cement (-101 points), technology (-81 points), banks (-45 points), fertiliser (-39 points) and exploration and production (-34 points).
Individually, major gainers were Habib Metropolitan Bank (+18 points), MCB (+18 points), Bank AlFalah (+14 points), Azgard Nine (+14 points) and Colgate-Palmolive (+7 points).
Meanwhile, major losers were Systems Limited (-53 points), Meezan Bank (-37 points), HBL (-34 points), Lucky Cement (-32 points) and TRG Pakistan (-23 points).
