KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) had a sluggish trading day on Tuesday, with the benchmark KSE-100 index losing 26 points as the lack of any noteworthy news prevented advances.
Initially, the stock market maintained yesterday’s purchasing enthusiasm as buyers chose to put the capital in blue-chip businesses with high dividend yields.
Uncertainty over the continuing political crisis in the aftermath of the no-confidence vote presented against Prime Minister Imran Khan, as well as the rupee’s persistent devaluation, pushed the market to the negative.
Furthermore, investors stayed on the sidelines as they awaited the result of continuing discussions between the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Pakistan about the next loan tranche.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) authorized a $300 million loan for Pakistan’s capital markets at the meeting.
According to the Manila-based lender, PSX lacks depth in terms of the number of investors that use it and the number of enterprises obtaining financing.
The KSE-100 index ended the day down 26.43 points, or 0.06 percent, at 43,203.79 points.
“The market began in the green zone but remained volatile throughout the day,” the report stated, adding that mainboard activity remained subdued.
On the other hand, the brokerage firm reported that activity remained sideways as the market saw heavy volumes in third-tier equities.
Meanwhile, profit-taking was seen in the last trading hour, causing the index to finish in the red zone.
Banks (-36.2 points), exploration and production (-25.1 points), cement (-18.9 points), and car components all contributed to the performance (-12 points).
320 firms’ shares were traded during the session. At the conclusion of trade, 155 stocks were in the green, 143 were in the red, and 22 were unchanged.
Overall trading volume increased to 138.28 million shares, up from 124.94 million on Monday. During the day, shares worth Rs5 billion were exchanged.
Treet Corporation had the most shares traded (15.35 million), earning Rs0.20 to finish at Rs30.07. TPL Properties came in second with 8.38 million shares traded, gaining Rs0.50 to end at Rs17.88, while Pak Elektron came in third with 7.35 million shares traded, gaining Rs0.09 to conclude at Rs1.
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