KARACHI: Bears maintained their control over the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Friday, as the benchmark KSE-100 index fell nearly 600 points and closed below the 46,000-point mark.
Investors kept a close watch on news about the revival of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan programme and rupee-dollar parity.
The index opened higher and managed to touch the day’s high of 46,409.11 points, but it encountered frequent falls at regular intervals. The downward trend turned steeper in the second session of the day and the bourse failed to sustain the 46,000-point mark.
At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index fell 599.03 points, or 1.29%, to settle at 45,749.15 points. During the session, shares of 345 listed companies were traded. At the end of the session, 92 stocks closed in the green, 236 in the red, and 17 remained unchanged.
Overall trading volumes plunged to 192.5 million shares compared with Thursday’s tally of 269.5 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs7.7 billion.
Unity Foods was the volume leader with 14.9 million shares, gaining Rs0.83 to close at Rs29. It was followed by Ghani Global Holdings with 14.5 million shares, gaining Rs0.90 to close at Rs33.09, and Byco Petroleum with 9.3 million shares, losing Rs0.10 to close at Rs7.
