The Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 Index closed below 75,000 on Wednesday as the index faced some late-session profit-taking to lose over 250 points.
The KSE-100 started the session positive, hitting an intra-day high of 75,513.90. However, the bears gained control in the final hours and pushed the index into the negative territory.
At close, the benchmark index settled at 74,956.67, down by 250.10 points or 0.33%.
On Tuesday, the KSE-100 had closed 123 points higher on the banking sector’s strength.
“Unable to sustain the gains made in previous session, the Pakistan Stock Exchange ended day on Wednesday in red. Indices traded in green for most part of the day but lost momentum sharply towards the end of the session, resulting in a negative close. On the other hand, volume swelled compared to previous session,” brokerage house Capital Stake said in its post-market report.
Topline Securities said today’s “confounded market behavior can be ascribed to absence of any positive trigger which can assist market to keep on its off late north bound journey”.
According to Topline, vibes from negotiations between Pakistan government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and anticipation of further austerity measures in the upcoming budget kept the investors at bay as they opted to do some profit-taking above 75,000 level.
In a key development, Minister for Petroleum Musadik Malik said Pakistan was seeking access to Iranian gas, but cautioned that Islamabad was not in a position to face international sanctions.
“Our position is very clear – we would like to have Iranian gas, but we want to come up with a mechanism by which we don’t face any sanctions,” Musadik said while addressing the Pakistan Energy Symposium in Islamabad on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Chinese firms have expressed a keen interest in collaborating with Pakistan Refinery Limited (PRL) on its Refinery Expansion & Upgrade Project (REUP).
The refinery, a subsidiary of Pakistan State Oil Company Limited (PSO), shared the development in its notice to the PSX.
“In a significant step towards enhancing Pakistan’s refining capabilities, senior management from PRL recently visited China to engage with Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) contractors and financial institutions. These discussions were highly productive, laying the groundwork for the forthcoming phases of PRL’s REUP,” read the notice.
Asian shares edged higher on Wednesday as anxious investors dared to hope AI-diva Nvidia could meet sky-high expectations, while keeping a wary eye on the outlook for US and UK interest rates.
The Pakistani rupee registered a marginal decline against the US dollar, depreciating 0.03% in the inter-bank market on Wednesday. At close, the local unit settled at 278.47, a loss of Re0.08 against the greenback, as per the State Bank of Pakistan.
Volume on the all-share index increased to 584.48 million from 462.30 million a session ago.
The value of shares rose to Rs17.71 billion from Rs15.87 billion in the previous session.
Hum Network was the volume leader with 71.27 million shares, followed by Pace (Pak) Ltd with 46.64 million shares, and K-Electric Ltd with 34.48 million shares.
Shares of 393 companies were traded on Wednesday, of which 132 registered an increase, 236 recorded a fall, while 25 remained unchanged.
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