KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange’s KSE-100 Index remained volatile and under pressure on Thursday due to prevailing uncertain economic issues and continued decline of rupee against dollar which kept the investors at bay.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the benchmark KSE-100 Index opened in the green zone and remained volatile throughout the day, but in the last trading hour investors opted for value hunting that helped the index to close in positive territory.
“The main board activity remained dull whereas hefty volumes were observed in 3rd tier stocks,” he added.
The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares Index gained 0.08 per cent, or 35.29 points, to close at 42,898.44 points. The KSE-30 shares Index gained 0.02 per cent, or 3.92 points, to close at 16,307.82 points.
As many as 336 scrips were active of which 180 advanced, 137 declined and 19 remained unchanged.
The ready market volumes stood at 284.50 million shares, compared with the turnover of 338.54 million shares in the last trading session.
An analyst at Pearl Securities said that the market witnessed a volatile session owing to the continuous rupee depreciation which closed at a record low level of Rs192 against the dollar.
“Further, domestic and global concerns regarding the persistently high inflation figures and expected high policy rate in the upcoming Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) dampened the investors’ interest,” he added.
“However, late recovery was seen at the bourses as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has confirmed the review talks next week on the latest economic developments and policy implementation,” he added.
Going forward, the analysts expect the market to move both ways, therefore, suggesting investors to book profits at a higher level.
The companies which reflected the highest gains included Gatron Ind up Rs27.53 to close at Rs410.33/share, and Highnoon (Lab)XB up Rs20.01 to close at Rs550.59/share.
The companies which reflected the most losses included Nestle Pakistan down Rs134.16 to close at Rs5,615.84/share, and Sapphire Tex down Rs50.12 to close at Rs1,150/share.
The highest volumes were witnessed in Treet Corp with a turnover of 27.62 million shares. The scrip gained Rs1.37 paisas to close at Rs31.45/share, followed by TPL Properties with a turnover of 18.89 million shares. It gained 12 paisas to close at Rs17.21/share. Telecard Limited remained the third with a turnover of 16.85 million shares. It gained 41 paisas to finish at Rs11.17/share.