After hitting a record intra-day high, profit-taking erased gains at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) as the benchmark KSE-100 Index was down by 125 points at the end of trading on Tuesday.
Propelled by bullish momentum, the KSE-100 Index reached a record intra-day high of 54,312.89 during the day.
However, selling was witnessed during the closing hours of the trading session.
At close, the benchmark index settled at 53,735.73, down by 124.64 points or 0.23%.
On Monday, the KSE-100 index was up by 737 points, as it settled at 53,860.37 on the back of a strong buying spree. This was the highest closing level for the KSE-100.
A mixed pattern was witnessed among index-heavy sectors on Tuesday, with commercial banks, oil and gas exploration companies and OMCs trading in the green, while automobile assemblers, chemical and fertilisers trading in the red.
Experts attributed the bullish trend at the bourse to improved macroeconomic indicators, as the country’s current account deficit declined to $8 million in September 2023 as compared to the current account deficit of $360 million in the same month in 2022, on account of lower imports.
The CPI-based inflation in Pakistan also lowered to 26.9% in October.
The market is optimistic that the ongoing International Monetary Fund (IMF) review of the Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) will be successful, paving the way for further inflows into the country.
“There is just no stopping the KSE-100 at the moment, with the market anticipating a successful IMF review and commencement of monetary easing within the next few Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meetings,” said Intermarket Securities Limited in a note on Tuesday.
“Periodic profit-taking may come from time to time, but in general we expect a significant valuation rerating across the next 12 months,” it added.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee sustained losses against the US dollar for the 12th successive session as it depreciated 0.38% in the inter-bank market on Tuesday. As per the State Bank of Pakistan, the currency settled at 286.39, a decrease of Rs1.10.
Volume on the all-share index decreased to 506 million from 546.5 million a session before.
The value of shares rose to Rs18.2 billion from Rs17.9 billion in the previous session.
Cnergyico PK remained the volume leader with 50.4 million shares, followed by Pak Refinery with 36.2 million shares and Kohinoor Spining with 34.7 million shares.
Shares of 365 companies were traded on Tuesday, of which 125 registered an increase, 220 recorded a fall, while 20 remained unchanged.
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