KSE-100 dips amid thin volumes in lacklustre trading

• Absence of positive triggers undermined investors’ interest.
• Jittery investors weighed impact of ongoing political turmoil.
• KSE-100 index closes at 42,504.34 points.

KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) endured a lacklustre trading session on Monday, as the benchmark KSE-100 index succumbed to across-the-board selling pressure in the absence of positive triggers and closed in the red.

The benchmark KSE-100 swung between positive and negative territories and ended the session nearly flat.

The absence of positive triggers undermined investors’ interest further and they resorted to cautious trading.

Jittery investors weighed the impact of ongoing political turmoil in the country coupled with the uncertainty regarding the International Monetary Fund’s executive board meeting later tonight.

As a result, market players mainly opted to stay on the sidelines as the trading volume and value remained thin on the first day of the week.

Moreover, the fresh depreciation of the rupee against the US dollar in the interbank market added to the woes of investors.

At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index closed at 42,504.34 points with a decrease of 87.17 points or 0.20%.

A report from Arif Habib Limited noted that the market observed a negative session today due to concerns over mounting inflation and GDP growth rate.

“Investors' participation remained sideways throughout the day although value buying was witnessed in the last trading hour which helped the index to recover as it touched an intraday low of 763.38 points,” the brokerage house noted.

Meanwhile, volumes remained dry in the mainboard whereas hefty volumes were witnessed in the third-tier stocks.

Sectors contributing to the performance included exploration and production (-29.5 points), food and personal care (-25.7 points), autos (-17.8 points), pharmaceuticals (-15.9 points), and textiles (-13.4 points).

Shares of 337 companies were traded during the session. At the close of trading, 115 scrips closed in the green, 197 in the red, and 25 remained unchanged.

Overall trading volumes declined to 229.21 million shares compared with Friday’s tally of 265.75 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs7.28 billion.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 23.81 million shares traded, losing Rs0.03 to close at Rs1.27. It was followed by K-Electric with 15.84 million shares traded, gaining Rs0.02 to close at Rs3.53 and Cnergyico with 12.23 million shares traded, losing Rs0.09 to close at Rs5.43.