KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Monday closed almost flat as the benchmark KSE-100 Index lost 57 points to close at 46,581, breaking an eight-day long bullish streak.
The index opened higher and touched a day’s high of 46,828 points before losing ground to touch the day’s low of 46,530 points before session’s close.
In all, 202.8 million shares worth Rs 8.4 billion were traded at the exchange as trading dampened compared to last week. Of the 373 traded scrips, 184 advanced, 166 declined and 23 remained unchanged. The cement sector took the lead today with 35.5m shares traded, while chemicals followed with 30.2m shares.
The stocks started new week on positive note after adding 74 points in early trading to reach 46712 points level. The PSX lost all the early gains and became flat at 46637 points level till midday.
Last week, the KSE-100 index extended its gains during the week, closing up 1,148 points (+2.5 percent WoW), at 46,638 level. Optimism continued on the back of rallies in Cement (+3.7 percent WoW), Oil and Gas Marketing (+3.1 percent WoW) and Oil & Gas Exploration (+1.7 percent WoW) sectors.
Market during the entire week witnessed positive trend in anticipation of announcement of Amnesty scheme and government steps for resolution of external account woes.
During the outgoing week, cement and banking sector emerged as the top performers, contributing 195/194 points respectively, as investors sentiments improved in cement sector post recent jump in cement prices by Rs50/bag and investors expectations of passing of amnesty flows through banking channel.
Total volumetric activity in the week showed jump of 8 percent, while value traded increased by 34 percent. Among participants, mutual funds remained net buyers of $45.4million whereas, banks remained net sellers of $15.9million. Moreover, foreign investors remained net buyer of US$3.6million.