KARACHI: After a day respite, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Thursday experienced another negative session with the benchmark KSE-100 index losing 281 points or 0.6 per cent to fall below the 46,500-mark.
The index opened higher and managed to touch the day’s high of 46,843.69 points before bearish momentum kicked in, pulling the index down to the day’s low of 46,323.59 points before closing at 46,348.18.
Investors turned wary due to a delay in the $6 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme which was expected to resume last week. Furthermore, the market participants also kept their eyes on the rupee-dollar parity and soaring inflation.
Sectors contributing to the performance included commercial banks (-60 points), exploration and production (-55 points), technology (-40 points), cement (-37 points) and engineering (-19 points).
During the session, shares of 352 listed companies were traded. At the end of the session, 95 stocks closed in the green, 232 in the red, and 25 remained unchanged.
Overall trading volumes dropped to 269.5 million shares compared with Wednesday’s tally of 320.3 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs9.5 billion.
Ghani Global Holdings was the volume leader with 30.2 million shares, losing Rs1.05 to close at Rs32.19. It was followed by Service Fabrics with 20.5 million shares, gaining Rs0.65 to close at Rs12.09, and Telecard Limited with 14.3 million shares, losing Rs0.34 to close at Rs18.97.
