Daily Times

A combination of buying and selling forces maintained the KSE-100 index in a restricted range for most of the day on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX).

After two sessions in the red, the benchmark index managed to eke out a very slight gain before the closing bell despite continuing to be under pressure. The KSE-100 index finished the trading day at 41,159.79 points, reflecting a rise of 57.22 points, or 0.14pc, compared to its opening level.

The first minutes of trading saw a surge, which resulted in the market quickly climbing to a new intraday high of 41,334.9 points. However, for the rest of the trading day, the KSE-100 index remained contained inside a narrow trading range as investors waited for good developments before making new purchases.

Towards the end of the trading day, unpredictability caused the market to give up some of its earlier gains; nonetheless, the index still ended on a positive note.

Buying activity was observed across the board in the index-heavy sectors, including automotive, cement, bank, fertilizer, and oil stocks.

However, trading in third-tier stocks remained strong, according to the report.

Further depreciation of 1.06 or 0.51pc of the rupee versus the US dollar pushed it down to Rs207.99 at the end of the day.

In addition to banking (36.62 points), cement (14.59 points), and technology and communication, the benchmark KSE-100 index rose (14.21 points).

On Wednesday, the all-share index’s volume rose from 76.9m to 98.25m. From Rs2.4b to Rs2.7b, the value of shares exchanged went up somewhat.

With 25.04m shares, Agritech Limited led the pack, followed by Unity Foods and Azgard Nine, each with 5.39m shares.

In trading on Wednesday, the shares of 308 firms saw gains of 173, losses of 115, and no changes in the shares of the remaining 20.