KARACHI
\nPakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) remained lacklustre and bearish for the fifth consecutive session on Friday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index losing 67.87 points (-0.16 percent) to close at 41,301.29 points.
\nThe concerns about the revival of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan programme turned the market bearish. Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said on Thursday that global institutions want Pakistan to default like Sri Lanka and then enter negotiations.
\nIn an apparent reference to the delay in funding from the IMF, he stated, \u201cPakistan\u2019s time is being wasted. We are a victim of geopolitics. The IMF has never dealt with this way in the past 30 years.\u201d However, he added that \u201cPakistan will receive good news by June 30.\u201d
\nHowever, the Ministry of Finance clarified on Friday that the government is fully committed to the IMF programme and is keen to at least complete the 9th Review. \u201cWe are not \u201cdoctrinaire\u201d about any element of the Budget FY24 and are keenly engaged with the IMF to reach an amicable solution,\u201d said the ministry, adding the negotiations with IMF are ongoing.
\nOverall, the benchmark index has shed over 500 points during the five sessions after the presentation of the 2023-24 budget.
\nThe market opened on a negative note but switched continually in the red and green areas, closing the first session of the day with a gain of over 100 points. However, the benchmark index eroded all the gains in the second session amid selling pressure, closing the day and the week on a negative note.
\nThe KSE-100 Index moved in a range of 332.51 points, showing an intraday high of 41,612.67 points and a low of 41,280.16 points. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index shed 99.70 points (-0.36 percent) to close at 27,920.66 points, while KMI All Share Islamic Index shed 72.92 points (-0.36 percent) to close at 20,487.75 points.
\nTotal volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index remained 60.08 million against 44.87 million a session earlier, showing an increase of 15.21 million shares. The overall market volumes increased by 6.34 million to 156.02 million shares against 149.68 million shares a session earlier.
\nAmong scrips, TPLP topped the volumes with 24 million shares, followed by KEL (17.82 million) and HASCOL (16.29 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included TPLP, KEL, HASCOL, WTL and SNBL, which formed around 50 percent of total volumes.
\nA total of 323 companies traded shares in the stock exchange as compared to 309 a session earlier. Out of traded companies, shares of 108 closed up, shares of 183 closed down while shares of 32 companies remained unchanged. A total of 94 companies traded shares in the KSE-100 Index against 92 companies a session earlier, out of which shares of 33 companies closed up, 55 closed down and six remained unchanged.
\nThe number of total trades decreased by 3,273 to 70,637 against 73,910 a session earlier, while the value traded increased by Rs0.15 billion to Rs3.75 billion.
\nThe sectors taking the index towards south were commercial banks (47 points), fertilizer (36 points), power generation & distribution (29 points), oil & gas exploration companies (20 points), and pharmaceuticals (12 points). The major companies depriving the index of points remained MEBL (18 points), ENGRO, EFERT and PSO (17 points each), and HUBC (16 points).
\nThe sectors taking the index towards north were chemical (57 points), technology & communication (18 points), investment banks\/ investment companies\/ securities companies (10 points), cement (10 points), and textile composite (2 points). The major companies adding points to the index remained COLG (64 points), SYS (27 points), DAWH (13 points), SHEL (12 points), and MLCF (7 points).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KARACHI Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) remained lacklustre and bearish for the fifth consecutive session on Friday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index losing 67.87 points (-0.16 percent) to close at 41,301.29 points. The concerns about the revival of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan programme turned the market bearish. Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said on Thursday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253275,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[205],"class_list":{"0":"post-338244","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-psx"},"yoast_head":"\n