On Wednesday, trading was choppy at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), but the benchmark KSE-100 Index finished with a slight gain as investors awaited the signature of a staff-level agreement between Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The deal’s postponement has increased market anxiety.
The KSE-100 Index gained 24.24 points (0.06%) to end the day at 41,358.93 on Wednesday.
There was an immediate uptick in trading, and the KSE-100 Index quickly rose to a new intraday high. At this time, the session’s trading range shrank and the market levelled off.
The oil and gas sector concluded the day on a mixed note, but the automobile, cement, banking, and fertiliser sectors, which make up a large portion of the index, all witnessed slight losses.
As for the economy, the federal government’s debt increased by 30 percent from the previous year, reaching Rs 54,942 billion. 62% of the overall debt was incurred by domestic sources, while the remaining 38% came from external sources. On Wednesday, the value of the Rupee dropped by Rs1.25, or 0.45%, to a final rate of 279.12 per US dollar.
Upward momentum in the benchmark KSE-100 index was led by the electricity production and distribution (43.78), banking (41.46), and oil and gas exploration (41.29) sectors (22.76 points).
The all-share index saw an increase in volume to 162.9 million shares, up from 160.1 million on Tuesday. A total of Rs6.3 billion worth of shares changed hands, up from Rs5.3 billion the previous day.
The most shares traded (14.4 million) were held by Hascol, followed by Telecard Limited (7.9 million) and WorldCall Telecom (7.8 million).
Wednesday’s trading activity involved 335 different firms; 148 of them saw price increases, 164 saw price decreases, and 23 saw no change.
