Karachi – The last trading day of the week saw intense profit-taking by investors at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), due to which the Hundred Index suffered a major decline of 670.20 points. After the continuation of the bullish trend over the past few weeks, selling pressure was seen from the beginning of the market today, which soon took the form of a major bearish trend. According to financial analysts, the cautious strategy of investors on macroeconomic indicators and the tendency to change positions in major sectors pushed the market into the negative zone.
At the beginning of the trading day, the KSE 100 Index opened at 169,539.16 points. In the initial hours, the market showed some positive momentum and touched a high of 169,624.78 points. However, this momentum could not be sustained for long, and suddenly there was severe selling pressure in important sectors like banking, cement and energy. Due to this decline, the index fell to a low of 167,480.67 points at one point. With a slight recovery at the end of the market, the index closed at 167,844.25 points, which shows a total decrease of 0.40 percent.
Economists say that the index has maintained an impressive record profit of 33.60 percent in the current financial year (FYTD) so far, but the overall performance in the current calendar year (CYTD) has fallen to negative 3.57 percent. The total trading volume (Volume) was recorded at 170.38 million shares in today’s session. The biggest role in bringing down the market was played by the banking and construction sectors, where heavy selling was seen in the shares of big banks and companies.
If we talk about the shares of individual companies, then even in this storm of decline, some stocks kept trying to support the market. PTC (PTC) performed brilliantly, adding the most to the index by 48.32 points. This was followed by EFERT (EFERT) with 33.61 points, Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) with 26.91 points, Colgate (COLG) with 16.78 points and Tariq Glass (TGL) with 12.47 points.
On the other hand, United Bank Limited (UBL) was the top dragger, with its shares falling, causing the index to suffer a heavy loss of 91.31 points. Habib Bank Limited (HBL) contributed 73.02 points to the index, Lucky Cement (LUCK) with 72.06 points, Engro Fertilizers (ENGROH) with 61.63 points and System Limited (SYS) with 55.94 points. According to The Nation’s policy, market stability is essential for economic stability, and experts are calling the current correction essential for the long-term healthy continuation of the market.
