KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange benchmark KSE-100 index closed almost flat after witnessing massive volatility in a see-saw session on Wednesday.
The day opened on a positive note, but uncertainty soon prevailed and the index kept moving between green and red zones for the entire day. It crossed 42,800 points multiple times, but failed to sustain the gains.
Despite the volatility, exploration and production stocks performed well and all of them closed in the green. On the other hand, cement stocks faced selling pressure and many major names fell.
At close, the KSE 100-share Index recorded a decrease of 28.27 points or 0.07% to settle at 42,731.86.
On the results front, Engro Power Qadirpur Limited (-0.61%) announced its half-year result for 2018 which was in line with street expectations.
The benchmark KSE-100 index has shown signs of dwindling ahead of key resistance at 42,800-43,000 which warns of an interim correction. At this point, the key support is around 42,600/500, however, a break below this will be a sign of further bearish correction to 42,100 and 41,750.
Overall, trading volumes decreased to 191.5 million shares compared with Tuesday’s tally of 239.5 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs9.09 billion. Shares of 366 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 150 stocks closed higher, 197 declined while 19 remained unchanged.
Pakistan International Bulk Terminal was the volume leader with 11.1 million shares, gaining Rs0.53 to close at Rs14.04. It was followed by Oil and Gas Development Company with 10.6 million shares, gaining Rs0.54 to close at Rs152.91 and Lotte Chemical with 9.1 million shares, losing Rs0.16 to close at Rs14.06.
