KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) Thursday witnessed fluctuation and shed most of the early gains as the benchmark 100-index gained 23 points to reach 42313 points level till midday.
Earlier, the stocks started day on positive note and added 166 points to reach 42456 points level in early trading.
On Wednesday, bearish sentiments dominated at the PSX as KSE 100-index went down by 376 points and closed at 42,290 points due to growing political uncertainty.
Sectors dragging down the index were commercial banks that shed 84 points, oil and gas exploration companies, which took away 61 points, cements 48 points, and power generation and distribution slashed 29 points.
A rally was witnessed in the fertilizer sector as fertilizer numbers for the month of August-17 showed a growth of 36% YoY. FFC (up 2.4%), FATIMA (1.2%), FFBL (1.5%) and EFERT (1.1%) cumulatively contributed 43 points to the index gain.
Due to investors cautious stance, trading activity remained flat as daily volumes on the ready counter clocked in at 147m/shares, up by 1% DoD, whereas trade value down by 26% to Rs5.4b/USD52m. Stocks that controlled the activity were KEL (9.3%), WTL (9.0%), BOP (8.0%), TRG (7.4%) and KOSM (5.4%) which cumulatively contributed 39% of total volumes.
Scrips of total 382 active companies participated in the session of which 284 closed in decline, 97 in advance while 21 remained unchanged.
