KSE-100 drifts higher in range-bound trading

The Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 Index closed slightly higher in a range-bound session on Wednesday.

Since start of the day, the KSE-100 witnessed dull trading as investors opted to remain on the sidelines ahead of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting due on Thursday.

However, some buying was seen in select stocks from energy and banking sectors, brokerage house Next Capital said.

At close, the benchmark index settled at 45,590.93, up by 82.53 points or 0.18%.

On Tuesday, the KSE-100 had witnessed at negative session and closed lower by over 350 points.

The MPC of the State Bank of Pakistan is set to meet on Thursday (September 14) to announce its monetary policy, and will issue its statement through a press release.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee maintained its momentum against the US dollar, appreciating for the sixth successive session to settle at 298.82 in the inter-bank market on Wednesday.

However, the rupee’s appreciation run in the open market came to a stop as the Pakistani currency inched lower against the US dollar.

Volume on the all-share index decreased to 102.76 million from 126.34 million on Tuesday.

The value of shares declined to Rs3.8 billion from Rs4.987 billion in the previous session.

Dewan Motors remained the volume leader with 7.2 million shares, followed by Agritech Limited with 6.510 million shares and Cnergyico PK with 5.015 million shares.

Shares of 299 companies were traded on Wednesday, of which 122 registered an increase, 135 recorded a fall, and 42 remained unchanged.