KSE-100 sheds 1.06% as IMF uncertainty persists

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) turned red on Wednesday and the KSE-100 Index offloaded 1.06% owing to turbulent economic situation of the country.

No progress on resumption of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme kept investors on the sidelines and dealt a blow to trading volumes.

At close, the benchmark index settled at 40,220.8, a fall of 432.23 points or 1.06%.

KSE-100 closes volatile session with marginal gain

Trading began upward but selling pressure gripped the KSE-100 Index soon after. From this point onward, the market began its descent and it continued to fall for the rest of the session.

Index-heavy banks, automobile, cement, fertiliser and oil sectors saw massive losses while chemical sector closed mixed.

A report from Arif Habib Limited stated that bears prevailed at the PSX.

“The benchmark KSE-100 Index opened in the green but soon the bears took over as an unstable economic situation of the country kept the investors to trim down weight, while selling was witnessed in the second half of the session,” it said. “Volumes remained healthy throughout as third tier stocks led the volume board.”

A report from Capital Stake underlined that investors witnessed a bearish trend mid-week.

“Indices traded in red for most part of the day, while volumes fell from last close,” it added.

On the economic front, the Pakistani rupee saw a marginal gain against the US dollar with an appreciation of Re0.24 or 0.08% in the inter-bank market to settle at 286.98 on Wednesday.

Sectors painting the benchmark KSE-100 Index in red included chemical (65.74 points), oil and gas exploration (51.36 points) and technology and communication (50.81 points).

Volume on the all-share index dropped to 97 million from 124.9 million on Tuesday, while the value of shares traded dropped to Rs3.6 billion from Rs4 billion recorded in the previous session.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 11.7 million shares followed by BankIslami with 7.9 million shares and Shell Pakistan with 4.7 million shares.

Shares of 323 companies were traded on Wednesday, of which 69 registered an increase, 231 recorded a fall and 23 remained unchanged.