Business desk
KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) Tuesday reversed its uptrend as looming uncertainty dampened investor sentiment and they resorted to selling off their holdings in a volatile session.
Trading kicked off with a jump and the market remained in the green zone during the first half of the session.
However, selling pressure emerged in the second half as the index erased all gains and entered negative territory. A late-session buying spell wiped off some of the losses but still, the market closed in the red.
The benchmark KSE-100 index closed at 42,155.48 points with a decrease of 56.16 points or 0.13%.
A report from Arif Habib Limited stated that PSX witnessed a range-bound session today as investors choose to book profits.
The benchmark KSE-100 index despite opening in the positive zone failed to continue the momentum whereas participation remained sluggish that led the index to close in the red zone.
Volumes remained healthy in the main board on the contrary hefty volumes were recorded in the third-tier stocks.
Sectors contributing to the performance included technology (-112.1 points), cement (-28 points), exploration and production (-7.3 points), vanaspati and allied Industries (-6.5 points), and textile composite (-6.5 points).
Shares of 341 companies were traded during the session. At the close of trading, 139 scrips closed in the green, 176 in the red, and 26 remained unchanged.
Overall trading volumes rose to 304.83 million shares compared with Monday’s tally of 240.19 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs9.84 billion.
Worldcall Telecom was the volume leader with 39.05 million shares traded, losing Rs0.07 to close at Rs1.56. It was followed by Cnergyico PK with 34.12 million shares traded, gaining Rs0.18 to close at Rs18.22 and Pakistan Refinery with 32.40 million shares gaining Rs0.76 to close at Rs18.22.
