Bears return to PSX as KSE-100 sheds 33 points

KARACHI: Bears staged a comeback at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Thursday as the benchmark KSE-100 index shed 33 points amid a lack of positive triggers and an uncertain economic outlook.

Trading began with a spike and the market climbed during initial hours. At midday, however, a selling spree emerged as investors began profit-taking which pulled the market into the red zone.

A last attempt was made to lift the KSE-100 index in the final hour, but late session selling made it unsuccessful and the market closed with a slight loss. At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded a decrease of 33.37 points to settle at 48,093.53.

Overall trading volumes dropped to 889.9 million shares compared with Wednesday’s tally of 1.05 billion. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs31.7 billion. Shares of 428 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 229 stocks closed higher, 172 declined and 27 remained unchanged.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 135 million shares, losing Rs0.03 to close at Rs3.56. It was followed by First National Equities with 48.1 million shares, losing Rs0.76 to close at Rs8.92 and Invest Capital Investment Bank with 42.7 million shares, gaining Re1 to close at Rs3.74.