The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed a negative session on Monday, as its benchmark KSE-100 Index closed in red amid concerns about an expected rate hike in the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting due this week.
The KSE-100 started positive, hitting an intra-day high of 46,174.69. However, profit-taking curbed the gains and pushed the index into negative territory.
At close, the benchmark index settled at 45,865.73, down by 147.76 or 0.32%.
Banks, fertilizer, and E&P sectors contributed negatively to the index as UBL, ENGRO, POL, MCB & HBL lost 148 points, cumulatively. On the flip side, PPL, SNGP & PSEL gained 81 points due to some buying interest in them, according to the brokerage house.
Volume on the all-share index increased to 213.2 million from 149.57 million on Friday.
The value of shares rose to Rs8.195 billion from Rs5.551 billion in the previous session.
Bank Al-Falah remained the volume leader with 59.316 million shares, followed by K-Electric Ltd. with 14.653 million shares and Pak Petroleum with 11.683 million shares.
Shares of 306 companies were traded on Monday, of which 114 registered an increase, 172 recorded a fall, and 20 remained unchanged.
