KARACHI: Investors of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed a volatile session on Wednesday, as the indices failed to sustain gains accumulated in early hours and closed in the red.
Foreign investors continued to offload equities on Tuesday, registering a net outflow of $5.08 million.
On the economic front, overseas Pakistanis remitted $1,842 million in February 2020 as compared to $1,582 million in February 2019 despite a slowdown in the global economy as well as the ongoing situation due to coronavirus. However, on a month-on-month basis, remittances declined by 4.35pc in February 2020. Highest amount was remitted from Saudi Arabia ($422 millon), followed by UAE ($387 million), USA ($333 million), UK ($254 million) and Malaysia ($119 million).
The benchmark KSE-100 Index gained 637.34 points to record its intraday high at 38,333.09. Failing to maintain its upward momentum post midday, the index then fell to its intraday low at 37,523.19 after losing 172.56 points. It finally closed lower by 22.50 points at 37,673.25.
Among other indices, the KMI-30 Index dropped 302.95 points to end at 58,438.50, while the KSE All Share Index lost 56.46 points, settling at 26,127.67. Out of the total traded shares, 95 advanced and 204 declined.
The overall market volumes shrank further from 274.48 million shares in the last session to 217.63 million. Cement giants Maple Leaf Cement Factory Limited (MLCF -4.39pc) and Fauji Cement Company Limited (FCCL -0.43pc) topped the volume chart, followed by Hascol Petroleum Limited (HASCOL -0.98pc). The scrips had exchanged 17.64 million, 15.98 million and 13.43 million shares, respectively.
Sectors that contributed positively to the index included banking (+139.93 points), pharmaceutical (+31.64 points) and investment banking (+16.68 points). On the other hand, fertiliser (-41.28 points), oil & gas marketing (-29.35 points) and oil & gas exploration (-26.99 points) sectors dragged the index in the red.
The refinery sector turned out as the biggest loser of day (-3.95pc drop in market capitalization), with Byco Petroleum Pakistan Limited (BYCO -5.47pc), Pakistan Refinery Limited (PRL -4.19pc), Attock Refinery Limited (ATRL -1.54pc) and National Refinery Limited (NRL -1.14pc) closing in the negative zone.
