The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed a volatile session on Thursday, as its benchmark KSE-100 Index swayed in both directions before closing the day with a gain of 151 points.
The KSE-100 witnessed mixed trading since the start of the session. The index hit an intra-day low of 79,708.87 while intra-day high stood at 80,114.73, oscillating within a small range.
At close, the benchmark index settled at 79,992.35, up by 150.80 points or 0.19%.
“The benchmark index closed on a positive note today. However, it remained volatile throughout the session with low volume, primarily due to uncertainty surrounding the finalisation of the IMF bailout package,” brokerage house Ismail Iqbal Securities said in its post-market report.
Another brokerage house Topline Securities said the stock market showed a mixed pattern.
Driving the market’s positive momentum were sectors like fertiliser, power, IT, and banking, bolstered by companies including FFC, HUBC, SYS, HBL, and NBP, collectively contributing 377 points, it said.
On Wednesday, the KSE-100 had lost over 1% to close the session below 80,000 amid selling pressure.
In a key development, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev arrived in Pakistan on Thursday on a two-day official visit.
“The two sides will engage in wide-ranging discussions on areas of mutual interest in order to further strengthen bilateral cooperation. Several agreements and MoUs are expected to be signed during the visit,” the Foreign Office (FO) said in a statement earlier.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee registered a minor decline, depreciating 0.04% against the US dollar in the inter-bank market on Thursday. At close, the currency settled at 278.61, a loss of Re0.10 against the greenback.
Volume on the all-share index decreased to 389.02 million from 495.91 million a session ago.
The value of shares declined to Rs20.92 billion from Rs22.21 billion in the previous session.
Agritech Limited was the volume leader with 22.04 million shares, followed by Hub Power Co. with 18.62 million shares, and Air Link Commun with 16.81 million shares.
Shares of 445 companies were traded on Thursday, of which 181 registered an increase, 212 recorded a fall, while 52 remained unchanged.
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