A day after massive selling pressure, KSE-100 gains 0.3%

A day after the market saw massive selling pressure, the KSE-100 Index bounced back to finish with a 0.3% gain on Friday, calming some nerves of investors who have been rattled by the prevailing economic uncertainty.

Late-session buying helped the index with a near 200-point boost, but penny stocks continued to dominate the volumes’ chart.

At close on Friday, the KSE-100 Index ended with a gain of 121.72 points or 0.3% to settle at 41,301.48.

The minor recovery comes after the market witnessed selling pressure on Thursday as the benchmark KSE-100 Index lost over 550 points over domestic and international developments.

Brokerage house Arif Habib Limited (AHL), in a post-market comment, said the “the market opened in the negative zone, continuing the momentum from the previous close”.

Capital Stake said bulls regained control on the last trading session of the week even as foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) dropped another $15 million. On Thursday night, the government also reduced petrol prices by Rs10.

Meanwhile, sectors driving the benchmark KSE-100 index upwards included Technology and Communication sector (57.75 pts), Miscellaneous sector (52.27 pts) and Oil and Gas Exploration sector (32.10 pts).

Volume on the all-share index decreased to 139.7 million from 245 million on Thursday. The value of shares traded decreased to Rs4.17 billion from Rs7.6 billion recorded in the previous session.

Bank Alfalah Limited was the volume leader with 17.47 million shares, followed by WorldCall Telecom with 12.45 million shares, and Dewan Motors with 8.11 million shares.

Shares of 330 companies were traded on Thursday, of which 124 registered an increase, 185 recorded a fall, and 21 remained unchanged.