The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed another negative session on Wednesday as its benchmark KSE-100 Index closed lower by 447 points, mainly on selling in the banking and exploration sectors.
Trading at the KSE-100 remained volatile throughout the session as the index swayed both ways.
At close, the benchmark index settled at 74,219.44, down by 447.22 points or 0.60%.
“The negative trajectory was primarily influenced by weaknesses in the banking and exploration sectors,” brokerage house Topline Securities said in its post-market report.
Companies such as HBL, OGDC, BAFL, BAHL, and PPL collectively contributed to a loss of 225 points. However, there were some positive movements from EFERT, FABL, and TRG, which collectively added 37 points to the index, it added.
On Tuesday, the KSE-100 closed lower by over 900 points, reflecting the negativity witnessed in the global markets.
Another brokerage house Ismail Iqbal Securities said the equity market had remained volatile on Wednesday “primarily due to uncertainty surrounding the upcoming budget”.
The federal government is expected to announce the budget for the financial year 2024-25 next week.
In a key development, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said Pakistan was keen to access Chinese capital markets as Islamabad seeks to raise finances from international avenues.
The remarks came on Wednesday while addressing the Pak-China Business Forum being held in Shenzhen.
“During the next fiscal year, we want to go in with Pakistan’s inaugural Panda bond issue to access the Chinese capital market which is the second largest and deepest market in the world,” said Aurangzeb.
Meanwhile, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) is widely expected to cut its key interest rate next week by 100 basis points (bps) after holding it at a record 22% for seven straight policy meetings, according to a Reuters poll of market watchers.
The Pakistani rupee remained unchanged against the US dollar in the inter-bank market on Wednesday. At close, the local unit settled at 278.30, against the greenback, as per the SBP.
Volume on the all-share index decreased to 348.55 million from 414.48 million a session ago.
The value of shares declined to Rs16.39 billion from Rs18.31 billion in the previous session.
K-Electric Ltd was the volume leader with 25.28 million shares, followed by Amtex Limited with 23.59 million shares, and WorldCall Telecom with 16.06 million shares.
Shares of 441 companies were traded on Wednesday, of which 127 registered an increase, 246 recorded a fall, while 68 remained unchanged.