The Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 Index closed lower by 150 points on Wednesday, as investors resorted to book profits in sectors such as energy and fertiliser.
The KSE-100 witnessed some buying in the first half, hitting an intra-day high of 70,725.50. However, the latter half saw profit-taking that pushed the index into the negative territory.
At close, the benchmark index settled at 70,333.32, down by 150.34 points or 0.21%.
On Tuesday, the KSE-100 had closed 60.92 points lower after failing to sustain the 71,000 level crossed in the first half of the day.
The negative contributors in Wednesday’s session were EFERT, OGDC, ENGRO, FFC and PPL as they lost 196 points. On the other hand, BAFL, UBL & BAHL saw some buying interest as they added 99 points, according to the post-market report of brokerage house Topline Securities.
In a key development, the World Bank and Pakistan agreed on need for 10-year rolling country framework plan, Finance Division said on Wednesday.
Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb shared progress on economic reforms during his meeting with Ajay Banga, the president of the World Bank Group.
It may be noted that the United States said on Tuesday that the Pakistani government should prioritise and expand reforms to address its economic challenges.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee registered further losses, depreciating 0.04% against the US dollar in the inter-bank market on Wednesday. At close, the local unit settled at 278.40, a loss of Re0.11 against the greenback, as per the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
Volume on the all-share index decreased to 442.10 million from 548.42 million a session ago.
The value of shares declined to Rs16.03 billion from Rs21.03 billion in the previous session.
Pak Refinery was the volume leader with 39.12 million shares, followed by Fauji Cement with 27.95 million shares, and Kohinoor Spinning with 26.47 million shares.
Shares of 359 companies were traded on Wednesday, of which 148 registered an increase, 196 recorded a fall, while 15 remained unchanged.