The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) saw a pessimistic session on Friday as the KSE-100 Index dropped nearly 1% owing to weak investor sentiment.

Weakening macroeconomic cues and persistent political uncertainty kept investor participation low.

KSE-100 increases over 1,000 points as Pakistan moves to revive IMF programme

At the end of trading on Friday, the KSE-100 Index closed with a loss of 396 points or 0.97% at 40,450.53.

Trading began with a spike but weak investor spirits dragged the market lower in the first session. The selling pressure accelerated in the second session to widen the losses.

Automobile, cement, chemical and banking saw massive sell-off while oil stocks rallied.

A report from Capital Stake stated that “failing to sustain the gains made during the day, the PSX ended the session on Friday in red.”

Indices slipped lower and lower for most of the day while volumes declined from the last close.

“The depreciation of the rupee against the US dollar, depletion of foreign exchange reserves, and delay in agreement with the IMF were some of the major factors which dented investors’ confidence,” it said.

A report from Arif Habib Limited stated that the PSX concluded the week on a mixed note.

“The market opened in the red zone and traded in the same zone with sluggish activity throughout the first trading owing to the rupee dollar parity and political instability,” it said.

“However, after the second session resumed the bears took charge the index plunged down 440.97 points as investors opted to square-up their positions due to the rollover week.”

As per AHL, volumes remained healthy as investors are optimistic about the upcoming International Monetary Fund (IMF) visit for the 9th review of the Extended Fund Facility from the programme.

On the economic front, IMF said that its mission will visit Islamabad at the end of this month to continue discussions under the ninth Extended Fund Facility (EFF) review.

Secondly, Pakistan’s rupee continued to witness significant depreciation against the US dollar in the inter-bank market as it fell Rs7.17 or 2.73% on Friday to close at 262.6.

Sectors driving the benchmark KSE-100 index lower included cement (75.20 points), technology and communication (75.15 points), and the fertiliser (71.34 points).

Volume on the all-share index nearly halved to 191.3 million from 364.1 million on Thursday. The value of shares plummeted to Rs7.1 billion from Rs14.8 billion recorded in the previous session.

Pak Refinery was the volume leader with 14.2 million shares, followed by Cnergyico PK with 13.2 million shares and Fauji Foods with 12.5 million shares.

Shares of 333 companies were traded on Friday, of which 76 registered an increase, 238 recorded a fall and 19 remained unchanged.