KARACHI: Bears maintained their grip over the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Tuesday, with benchmark index shed nearly 800 points as uncertainty surrounding the recently announced agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) dampened investor sentiments.
The market opened on a positive note to reach an intraday high of 45,915.61, a rise of 170.61 points, within the first hour of the session. However, the KSE-100 Index fell to an intraday low of 44,881.15, a slump of 863.85 points,
Despite the much-awaited news that Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had reached a staff-level agreement, the market stayed under pressure. At close on Tuesday, the KSE-100 Index ended with a sharp fall of 796.48 points or 1.74% to settle at 44,948.52.
Sectors dragging the benchmark index lower included technology and communication (169.95 points), cement (152.00 points), and banking (93.13 points). Shares of 358 companies were traded on Tuesday, of which 49 registered an increase, 297 recorded a fall, and 12 remained unchanged.
Meanwhile, volumes on the all-share index increased, clocking in at 264.61 million, up from 261.90 million recorded on Monday. The value of shares traded declined marginally, amounting to Rs9.73 billion, down from Rs10.94 billion on Monday.
TRG Pakistan Limited was the volume leader with 19.63 million shares, followed by WorldCall Telecom with 17.17 million shares, and Byco Petroleum at 13.76 million shares.
