After two negative sessions, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed bullish sentiment on Wednesday as the benchmark KSE-100 index closed higher by 335 points.
The bulls largely dominated the session amid some resistance from the bears.
At close, the benchmark index settled at 78,275.65, up by 335.07 points or 0.43%.
“The equity market ended on a positive note today, recovering some losses from recent sessions,” brokerage house Ismail Iqbal Securities said in its post-market report.
On Tuesday, the PSX witnessed a negative session as the KSE-100 Index lost 292 points on profit-taking to settle at 77,940.58.
The sectors that contributed positively in Wednesday’s session included fertiliser, E&P, power, and OMCs. On the other hand, banking, technology, chemical, and pharma sectors were among the negative contributors.
Sentiments have improved as market expects Pakistan to soon ink a staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a new bailout.
Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb on Tuesday also wrapped up discussions on the Federal Budget 2024-25 in the National Assembly, maintaining higher tax rates on the salaried group, and announcing an honoraria amounting to 3-month basic pay for the staff and officers of the National Assembly and Senate.
Globally, Asian stocks stuttered in choppy early trade on Wednesday as markets braced for a key US inflation reading, while the yen lurked just shy of 160 per dollar level, keeping traders on alert for another round of intervention by Japanese authorities.
Risk sentiment was also capped as hawkish comments from Federal Reserve officials kept near-term US rate cut expectations in check in a boost to the dollar.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was little changed at 566.55 in choppy trading, inching away from the two year high of 573.38 it touched last week.
The index is still up 3.5% in June, on course for fifth straight month of gains.
Volume on the all-share index increased to 469.75 million from 292.18 million a session ago.
The value of shares declined to Rs19.77 billion from Rs11.41 billion in the previous session.
WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 57.65 million shares, followed by K-Electric Ltd with 37.64 million shares, and WorldCall Telecom with 31.13 million shares.
Shares of 454 companies were traded on Wednesday, of which 149 registered an increase, 248 recorded a fall, while 57 remained unchanged.
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