The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed a turbulent session and the KSE-100 Index fell 0.24% on Wednesday as investors remained concern over non-resumption of International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme.

Moreover, market participants awaited the monetary policy announcement due on Thursday.

By the end of the trading session, the benchmark index was down 97.6 points or 0.24% to close at 40,412.77.

KSE-100 Index retreats 0.67% as SBP prepones MPC meeting

Trading began with a slide and the market hit its intra-day low in initial hours. The second half of the session saw the market climb and erase the losses.

Automobile, cement, banking and oil spaces closed with losses.

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

“The market started in the negative zone and continued to trade in the negative territory for the majority of the trading session, reaching an intraday low of 480.64 points as investors chose to remain cautious due to the Supreme Court decision regarding the provincial elections.”

After the decision was announced, the market welcomed much-needed clarity to the political landscape as volumes remained healthy across the board after a slow start to the week, the report said.

A report from Capital Stake stated that the PSX witnessed dull trading session on Wednesday. Indices traded in red for most part of the day until finally closing flat.

“Volumes appreciated from previous close,” it said. “The downtrend trend is attributed to delay in signing of the staff-level agreement with IMF, as well as, the impending rate hike.”

On the economic front, the consumer price index (CPI) based inflation increased to 31.5% in February 2023 on a year-on-year basis.

Moreover, the government of Pakistan slashed petrol prices by Rs5 to Rs267.

Rupee depreciated Rs4.61 or 1.73% on Wednesday to close at 266.11 against the greenback.

Sectors driving the benchmark KSE-100 index south included oil and gas exploration (57.22 points), cement (36.54 points) and banking (13.70 points).

Volume on the all-share index rose to 167 million from 126.3 million on Tuesday. The value of shares jumped to Rs9.2 billion from Rs5.64 billion recorded in the previous session.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 20.2 million shares followed by Hub Power Company with 7.96 million shares and Maple Leaf Cement with 7.5 million shares.

Shares of 320 companies were traded on Wednesday, of which 110 registered an increase, 178 recorded a fall and 32 remained unchanged.