KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange on Thursday closed negative over volatility as the benchmark KSE 100-share index shed another 58.11 points or 0.14% to settle at 40,851.80.
Following a sideways open, the KSE-100 index plunged 527 points in intra-day trading as selling pressure emerged. Anxiety over meetings with the International Monetary Fund and a downward revision in Pakistan’s growth projection by the Asian Development Bank kept investors wary.
However, the index recovered near the end of trading after optimistic investors stepped in to accumulate stocks at attractive levels. The upcoming monetary policy announcement, where another interest rate hike was expected, also contributed to the market’s bearish session.
Selling pressure was noted mainly in oil and gas exploration and marketing stocks which collectively contributed over 70 points to the decline in the benchmark index.
Overall, trading volumes increased to 149.4 million shares compared with Wednesday’s tally of 126.4 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs5.3 billion.
Shares of 369 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 112 stocks closed higher, 240 declined and 17 remained unchanged.
Dolmen City (XD) was the volume leader with 22.1 million shares, losing Rs0.11 to close at Rs12.65. It was followed by Unity Foods with 12.4 million shares, losing Rs1.55 to close at Rs32.84 and TRG Pakistan with 12.1 million shares, gaining Rs0.93 to close at Rs28.97.
