Daily Times

Trading was rangebound as the benchmark KSE-100 Index finished the day just modestly higher while trading activity was low at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Monday. At 47,270.46 points, the KSE-100 concluded the day with a gain of 72.17 points or 0.15 percent.

The refinery industry came to the forefront amid speculation that the government would make a final decision on Monday about a policy for the sector.

As for the KSE-100 index, the oil and gas industry led the way with an advance of 17.45 points, with the banking sector following closely behind, adding 75.39 points (15.59 points).

The all-share index experienced a substantial decline in trading volume, which was down from 427.45 million shares on Friday to 395.84 million shares on Monday. The trading value of shares on the exchange decreased from Rs18.18 billion to Rs16.19 billion.

TPL Properties, Service Fabrics, and Byco Petroleum were the volume leaders, with 41.07 million, 42.15 million, and 44.96 million shares respectively.

Trading in shares of 209 firms rose, 290 fell, and 20 remained steady on Monday.

After the monetary policy was set for September 20, Topline Securities noted in a post-market statement that “the market advances have been tempered by predictions of a higher CPI, with a 13.7pc week-on-week increase in SPI keeping the market gains in check.”

“Following forecasts of a rate hike, commercial banks witnessed renewed investor interest, with UBL and HBL adding 65.9 and 48.9 points to the benchmark index, respectively.”