The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) continued to trade under pressure on Tuesday as the KSE-100 Index inched up 0.33% in a range-bound session.

Investors have turned pessimistic over a persistent drop in the rupee against US dollar, however, encouraging growth in remittances helped the market gain.

At close, the KSE-100 Index rose by 139.05 points or 0.33% to close at 42,001.34 points.

Range-bound trading, KSE-100 falls marginally

Trading began positively and the market rose in early hours. However, few of the gains were erased by midday and KSE-100 Index remained range-bound until final minutes. In the last hour, the market witnessed value buying that lifted it upward and helped it close with a gain.

Automobile, chemical and fertiliser sector bore the brunt of weak sentiment and closed in the red. However, cement and oil sectors saw modest buying and closed upward. Banking space closed mixed.

A report from Arif Habib Limited stated that another range-bound session was witnessed at the PSX.

“The market opened in positive zone and continued to trade in a consolidated range as investor’s participation remained dull throughout the day due to weakening of rupee against US dollar,” it said. “However, in the last trading hour value buying was noticed.”

A report from Capital State cited that bulls regained control of the PSX on Tuesday.

“Indices traded in green all day long, whereas volumes increased from last close,” it said.

On the economic front, remittances sent home by overseas Pakistanis inched up 1.54% year-on-year to $2,723.98 million in July. On month on month, remittances surged by 7.93%, showed the data released by the State Bank of Pakistan.

Moreover, rupee lost Rs2.1 or 0.91% against the US Dollar on day-on-day basis, ending at Rs231.9.

Sectors driving the benchmark KSE-100 index in the upward direction included banking sector (74.98 points), automobile assembler sector (35.66 points) and cement sector (28.2 points).

Volume on the all-share index dipped 118.5 million from 161.4 million on Monday. On the other hand, the value of shares traded declined to Rs3.87 billion from Rs5.84 billion recorded in the previous session.

Hascol was the volume leader with 10.2 million shares, followed by K-Electric with 6.9 million shares and Quice Food with 5.4 million shares.

Shares of 324 companies were traded on Tuesday, of which 145 registered an increase, 151 recorded a fall, and 28 remained unchanged.