After witnessing a bloodbath on Monday, normalcy returned to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), which saw a mixed session on Tuesday.
The bourse kicked off the session on a positive note, gaining 147.33 points as the benchmark KSE 100 index reached the day’s high of 41,746. Failing to sustain the gains, it fell to its low of 41,295.10, down by 317.57.
At close, the benchmark KSE-100 Index settled at 41,539.94, a decline of 72.73 points or 0.17%.
The development comes after the stock market plunged on Monday due to across-the-board selling on investor concerns over prevailing economic and political situation in the country. The benchmark index declined by 537.43 points or 1.28% and closed at 41,612.67 points.
“The market opened in the green territory however, selling momentum built up over the ongoing political clamor in the country,” said Arif Habib Limited (AHL) in a post-market comment.
“Deteriorating macroeconomic factors have continued to undermine investors' confidence, resulting in significant volume reductions from the mainboard as 3rd tier stocks continued to dominate the volume board,” it added.
On the economic front, as per data released by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Pakistan’s central government’s debt rose by 25% on YoY basis to Rs50,152 billion.
Rupee registered losses against the US dollar on Tuesday, as the currency recorded a depreciation of Re0.20 or 0.09% in the inter-bank market to close at 224.11.
Sectors driving the benchmark KSE-100 lower included automobile assembler (27.65 points), chemical sector (18.71 points) and oil and gas marketing (16.56 points).
Volume on the all-share index increased to 131.7 million from 126.3 million on Monday. The value of shares traded inched up to Rs3.9 billion from Rs3.2 billion recorded in the previous session.
Dewan Cement was the volume leader with 11.28 million shares, followed by WorldCall Telecom with 9.87 million shares and Dewan Motors with 9.86 million shares
Shares of 326 companies were traded on Tuesday, of which 112 registered an increase, 186 recorded a fall, and 28 remained unchanged.