The Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 Index endured a range-bound session on Tuesday as it faced both bullish and bearish pressures before closing marginally in the red.

The KSE-100 started the session positive, hitting an intra-day high of 78,275.97. However, some selling pressure in the latter part of the day pushed the index into the negative territory.

At close, the benchmark index settled at 77,877.42, down by 102.87 points or 0.13%.

“Pakistan equities had a mixed day where bullish and bearish forces fought the whole day to grab the rein of market momentum and eventually bears had the day on their name,” brokerage house Topline Securities said in its post-market report.

During the day, power, fertiliser, and auto sector’s stocks contributed negatively as HUBC, FFC, MTL, THALL & EFERT lost 157 points. On the other hand, some stocks like MARI, LUCK and JVDC experienced some buying interest, resulting in a combined positive contribution of 147 points, Topline said.

On Monday, the PSX experienced widespread selling pressure, resulting in a significant decline in the KSE-100 that closed the day lower by 589 points.

In a positive development, Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) Inc., in its results of the August 2024 index review, announced the addition of 7 Pakistani companies as constituents on its Frontier Market (FM) Index and FM Small Cap Indexes.

MSCI added one Pakistani company i.e. Sazgar Engineering Works (SAZEW) on its Frontier Market Index.

SAZEW is set to introduce the ORA-07 EV, a Completely Built Unit (CBU) electric vehicle, to the Pakistani market in the coming days.

The listed company shared the development in its notice to the PSX on Tuesday.

“We are pleased to inform you that the company is planning to launch a new imported CBU ‘ORA-07 EV’ electric vehicle within couple of days and booking of these vehicles will be commenced accordingly,” Sazgar stated in its notice.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee registered a marginal decline, depreciating 0.02% against the US dollar in the inter-bank market on Tuesday. At close, the currency settled at 278.70, a loss of Re0.06, against the greenback.

Volume on the all-share index jumped to 604.14 million from 415.17 million a session ago.

However, the value of shares decreased to Rs19.98 billion from Rs22.24 billion in the previous session.

Kohinoor Spinning was the volume leader with 131.92 million shares, followed by Yousuf Weaving with 89.20 million shares, and Hascol Petrol with 47.80 million shares.

Shares of 443 companies were traded on Tuesday, of which 183 registered an increase, 211 recorded a fall, while 49 remained unchanged.