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KARACHI: Bears continued to dominate the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) for the fourth consecutive session of the week, with the benchmark index KSE-100 Index failing to hold on to early gains and falling below the 44,000 mark.
Investors’ mood remained sombre ahead of Morgan Stanley Capital International’s (MSCI) reclassification next week. Moreover, the ongoing petroleum dilemma kept the oil scrip investors on the sidelines.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index endured a volatile session on Wednesday, recording its intraday high at 44,516.82 and low at 43,735.65. It settled lower by 531.23 points at 43,691.68. At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index fell 427.95 points, or 0.96%, to close at 43,935.75.
Sectors contributing to the performance included commercial banks (-140 points), power (-59 points), fertiliser (-50 points), cement (-48 points) and pharmaceuticals (-432 points). Shares of 328 companies were traded during the session. At the close of trading, 121 scrips closed in the green, 185 in the red, and 22 remained unchanged.
Overall trading volumes plunged to 195.2 million shares compared with Wednesday’s tally of 310.4 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs8.4 billion.
TPL Properties was the volume leader with 16.3 million shares traded, gaining Rs0.34 to close at Rs42.73. It was followed by Byco Petroleum with 12.2 million shares traded, gaining Rs0.13 to close at Rs6.44, and Hubco with 9.5 million shares traded, losing Rs2.25 to close at Rs69.94.