Daily Times

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) saw investors take profits in the opening trading session of the week, resulting in a weaker KSE-100 Index. A large drop was also seen in the volume and value of shares traded.

The rupee lost Rs1.21 or 0.58pc to close at 209.96 to the dollar as the IMF rescue programme and decreasing foreign exchange reserves continued to take a toll on the market. The KSE 100 index gained 195 points and reached an intraday high of 42,355.83 at the start of the trading day. Despite the increases, it slipped to 41,735.53 points, a drop of 387.23 points.

The Index fell 363.78 points, or 0.86pc, to finish the day at 41,776.98. Speculation that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will remove Pakistan from its “grey list” after the markets closed on Friday pushed the KSE-100 index up 410.6 points to cross the 42,000-point milestone. Investors were cautious due to fears of the IMF programme resuming, according to Arif Habib Limited’s post-market comment.

In addition to cement’s loss of 70.64 index points, the benchmark index also suffered a loss of 62.71 index points from technology and communication and electricity generation and distribution (50.68 points). The all-stock index’s volume fell to 162.1m shares from 282.9m on Friday. Securities traded dropped by Rs4.91b from the previous session’s record high value, a considerable fall. WorldCall Telecom had the second-largest volume with 15.35m shares, followed by Pak Refinery with 11.82m shares. On Monday, 318 companies’ shares were traded, with 87 rising, 220 falling, and 11 remaining constants.