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KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Friday managed to close flat despite sustained selling in the early hours of trading following a ‘bloodbath’ session that rattled investors a day earlier.
The topsy-turvy session had a dull activity amid the economic uncertainty regarding historic-high trade deficit, depreciating currency and soaring inflation.
In line with the previous session, the KSE-100 index fell to 42,751 within the first 20 minutes of the trading on Friday, which was the intra-day lowest level. However, the market gradually recovered from the early shock, with the benchmark KSE-100 index creeping back.
At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index shed 1.32 points to close at 43,232.83 points. Investors’ interest remained subdued as expectation of another massive hike in the benchmark policy rate by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), in its meeting scheduled on December 14, forced investors to trade cautiously.
Volume on the all-share index decreased significantly from 386.75 million to 287.73 million on Friday. The value of shares also declined, amounting to Rs10.28 billion, down from Rs14.06 billion on Thursday.
WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 24.35 million shares, followed by TPL Properties with 20.56 million shares, and Byco Petroleum at 16.96 million shares.
Shares of 330 companies were traded on Friday, of which 115 registered an increase, 205 recorded a fall, and 10 remained unchanged.
