KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed sluggish session on Friday a day after bulls overpowered bears to gain over 1,100 points.
The KSE-100 index plummeted by 396 points to conclude the week with a mixed reaction at 40,450.53 points. The market opened in the red zone and traded in the same zone with sluggish activity throughout the first trading owing to the rupee-dollar parity and political instability.
However, after the second session resumed the bears took charge the index plunged down 440.97 points as investors opted to square-up their positions due to the rollover week, according to an analysis issued by the Arif Habib Limited.
Sectors driving the benchmark KSE-100 index lower included cement (75.20 points), technology and communication (75.15 points), and the fertiliser (71.34 points).
Volume on the all-share index nearly halved to 191.3 million from 364.1 million on Thursday. The value of shares plummeted to Rs7.1 billion from Rs14.8 billion recorded in the previous session.
Pak Refinery was the volume leader with 14.2 million shares, followed by Cnergyico PK with 13.2 million shares and Fauji Foods with 12.5 million shares.
Shares of 333 companies were traded on Friday, of which 76 registered an increase, 238 recorded a fall and 19 remained unchanged.
