KSE-100 remains under pressure, falls 0.87%

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) remained under pressure on Friday and the KSE-100 Index fell 0.87% owing to political and economic turbulence.

No development on resumption of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme kept investors on the sidelines.

At close on Friday, the KSE-100 Index recorded a decrease of 364.14 points or 0.87% to close at 41,329.95.

KSE-100 retreats 0.43% in lacklustre session

The first session kicked off with a gain but selling pressure gripped the market shortly and it closed downward. The fall accelerated in the second half and the market closed below 41,500-point mark.

Index-heavy cement, banking, fertiliser and oil sectors closed with loss while automobile space ended the day on mixed note. On the other hand, chemical segment saw buying activity.

A report from Capital Stake stated that bears ruled the PSX on last trading session of the week.

A report from Arif Habib Limited stated that “to cap off the business week, the PSX recorded a negative session.”

It added that the market opened in the negative zone but continued to trade both ways during the opening session, as anticipated SLA agreement between the government and the IMF is prolonged.

The second session commenced and investors chose to book profits as the index fell to an intra-day low of 423.28 points due to the current political uncertainty and the impending uncertain weekend on both the political and economic fronts.

“Investors’ participation remained sluggish although dull volumes were witnessed across the board,” the report said.

On the economic front, foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) increased $18 million, clocking in at $4.32 billion as of March 10, data released on Thursday showed. This was the fifth successive increase in central bank-held reserves on a weekly basis.

The Pakistani rupee saw back-to-back gains against the US dollar as it appreciated Re0.71 or 0.25% in the inter-bank market on Friday to Rs281.71.

Sectors wiping the gains of KSE-100 index included technology and communication (104.37 points), fertiliser (71.22 points) and banking (50.07 points).

Volume on the all-share index dropped to 172.6 million from 234.7 million on Thursday. The value of shares traded rose to Rs8 billion from Rs7.5 billion recorded in the previous session.

HBL was the volume leader with 9.17 million shares followed by Hascol with 9.15 million shares and Pakistan International Bulk Terminal with 8.3 million shares.

Shares of 313 companies were traded on Friday, of which 121 registered an increase, 171 recorded a fall and 21 remained unchanged.