KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Friday held another volatile session and ended the trading session on a negative note as external woes and fast depreciating currency kept the benchmark index under pressure.
The expectation of a 75-100 basis points hike in the benchmark policy rate by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) next week coupled with uncertainty regarding the mini-budget dampened investor interest.
Trading began on a positive as benchmark KSE-100 index recorded an intraday high of 43,606.41. However, within the first hour, the market succumbed to selling pressure and moved towards the south. It then dropped to an intraday low of 43,044.99.
Meanwhile, after the trading resumed in the second session the index kept fluctuating between the red and green zones, ending the session on a negative note. At the close, the KSE-100 index fell 128.06 points, or 0.28%, to close at 43,395.78 points.
Shares of 324 companies were traded during the session. At the close of trading, 123 scrips closed in the green, 183 in the red, and 18 remained unchanged.
Overall trading volumes dropped to 179.2 million shares compared with Thursday’s tally of 179.2 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs6.7 billion.
TRG Pakistan was the volume leader with 14.6 million shares traded, gaining Rs1.39 to close at Rs96.44. It was followed by Treet Corporation with 14.2 million shares traded, losing Rs0.28 to close at Rs40.12, and WorldCall Telecom Limited with 13.6 million shares traded, losing Rs0.11 to close at Rs1.88.
