KSE-100 inches down owing to late-session profit taking

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) endured a dull session again on Friday and the KSE-100 Index inched down 0.22% owing to late session selling spell.

Weakening macroeconomic indicators and lack of stability despite the resumption of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme played on investors’ mind.

As a result, the KSE-100 Index finished with a drop of 92.6 points or 0.22% to close at 41,679.49 points.

KSE-100 falls 0.57% amid rupee depreciation

Following a short-lived spike, the market recovered from an intra-day low in the first session to close 73 points upward. Profit taking dominated throughout the second session and the stock market erased gains to end on a negative note.

Owing to weak sentiment, index bigwigs cement, chemical, banks and oil sectors reported major losses.

A report from Capital Stake stated that the PSX ended a volatile session on Friday flat. Indices oscillated in both directions, while volumes depreciated from last close, it said.

Topline Securities, in its report, said that range-bound session was observed at the bourse, as the index juggled between intraday high of 145 points and intraday low of -169 points, to finally close at 41,733 level (down by -0.09%).

On the economic front, State Bank of Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves fell by $176 million to $8.62 billion.

Moreover, rupee depreciated Rs0.95 per dollar or 0.4% to close the session at Rs236.8.

Sectors dragging the benchmark KSE-100 Index downwards included banking sector (81.32 points), oil and gas exploration sector (27.26 points) and tobacco sector (18.37 points).

Volume on the all-share index contracted to 219.4 million from 260 million on Thursday. On the other hand, the value of shares traded fell to Rs8.9 billion from Rs10.1 billion recorded in the previous session.

TRG Pakistan was the volume leader with 27.6 million shares, followed by Hascol with 26.1 million shares and WorldCall Telecom with 20.95 million shares.

Shares of 315 companies were traded on Thursday, of which 108 registered an increase, 188 recorded a fall, and 19 remained unchanged.