After 680-point fall, KSE-100 recovers to end marginally positive

Pakistan's benchmark KSE-100 endured a volatile ride on Tuesday, losing 680 points in intra-day trading before stocks staged a strong recovery to help the index close marginally positive.

At close on Tuesday, the KSE-100 finished with a gain of 53.73 points or 0.12% to settle at 43,883.08.

The day began with the index carrying on with its negative momentum from Monday, falling near the 43,150 level mid-day. Cherry-picking across the board, however, meant stocks staged a rally to end marginally positive with a massive increase in both value and volume of shares traded.

“Investor confidence remained weak due to concerns over the possibility of a further hike in electricity tariff,” said Capital Stake in its daily update. "Concerns come amid ongoing negotiations between the government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF)."

As per reports, power sector reforms remain a major bone of contention during the technical level talks and the government was unable to convince the Fund of its ability to implement the circular debt management plan designed to arrest the mounting circular debt.

“Sentiments remained choppy as the delay in ISI chief notification kept investors cautious. Moreover, higher international oil prices kept concerns alive over inflationary pressures and further monetary tightening by the SBP,” said Topline Securities in its post-market comment.

KSE-100 drops to lowest level since March after 648-point fall

On Tuesday, sectors that rescued the benchmark KSE-100 index from the negative zone included banking (263.77 points), cement (73.59 points), and engineering (20.38 points).

Volume on the all-share index increased dramatically from 226.58 million on Monday to 404.91 million on Tuesday. The value of the shares trade also increased significantly, amounting to Rs15.6 billion from Rs8.27 billion on Monday.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 51.14 million shares, followed by Telecard Limited with 27.58 million shares, and Treet Corp with 21.78 million shares.

Shares of 535 companies were traded on Tuesday, of which 217 registered an increase, 302 recorded a fall, while 16 remained unchanged.