KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed the week on a negative following unconfirmed reports of Pakistan being placed on the grey-list by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), with the benchmark KSE-100 index losing 261 points.
The index, which had made marginal gains of 101 points by the end of the first half, nose-dived in the first few minutes of trading in the second session, losing over 500 points by 3:45pm. However, a late recovery meant the index closed at 43,267 points.
Of the total of 355 traded scrips, 103 advanced, 227 declined and 25 remained unchanged. In all, 244 million shares worth Rs10.1 billion were traded on the exchange.
The engineering sector dominated trading with 18.4m shares traded, followed by chemical and tech sector at 14.8m and 11.3m shares traded.
Pakistani officials and Western diplomats say being put on the FATF watchlist could deal a blow to Pakistan’s economy, making it harder for foreign investors and companies to do business in the country.
However, an official statement on the decision has not yet been issued.
On Thursday the stocks turned bullish again, with the benchmark KSE 100-index gaining 609 points to close at 43,528 points.
The benchmark index opened on negative activity before adopting a positive momentum for the rest of the session. It hit a day’s low of 42,384 points a few minutes after trading commenced, whereas it hit a day’s high of 43,628 points near the end of the session.
Higher global crude prices, upbeat data on textile exports, upbeat remittances and cement dispatches for Jul-Dec’17 and robust financial results in cement, banking and oil sectors played a catalyst role in bullish close. Participation increased with improvement in sentiments despite upcoming FATF decision.
Traded value was up 7% and traded volumes were up 1%. Top 5 index point contributors included UBL (down 4%), HBL (1.8%), ENGRO (2.7%), OGDC (1.9%) and MCB (1.8%), which added 354 to the index.
