The Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) witnessed a range-bound session, as the benchmark KSE-100 Index ended only marginally positive on Friday, while volume of shares traded improved.
Thin participation by investors was witnessed throughout the week owing to political noise.
During the session, the benchmark index swung between an intra-day high of 43,686.35 (up by 164 points) and an intraday low of 43,375.38 (down by 147 points).
At close, the KSE-100 ended with a gain of 28.60 points, or 0.07%, to settle at 43,551.15. The benchmark index gained 521 points or 1.21% on a week-on-week basis.
During the day, the domestic political atmosphere remained charged as the National Assembly (NA) Speaker Asad Qaiser convened the session of the lower house on the opposition’s no-trust motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan. However, the crucial session of the NA was adjourned within 20 minutes till March 28 (Monday) at 4 pm.
On the economic front, the Sensitive Price Index (SPI) for the week ended 24-Mar-2022 recorded an increase of 1.10% WoW and 15.67% YoY. Meanwhile, the rupee settled at its all-time low of Rs181.78 against the US dollar.
On the corporate front, Pakistan Oxygen Limited informed the bourse that its securities have been granted the status of Shariah Compliant by Sháriah Supervisory Council of Al-Hilal Shariah Advisors, after having passed all the screening filters and various criteria for compliance including criteria of Pakistan Stock Exchange Limited.
Sectors pushing the benchmark index upwards included cement (73.73 points), technology & communications (53.08 points) and commercial banks (36.2 points).
Volume on the all-share index increased to 161.94 million, from 149.79 million on Thursday. The value of shares traded though declined to Rs4.15 billion from Rs5.64 billion recorded in the previous session.
WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 22.17 million shares, followed by Dost Steel Limited with 9.83 million shares, and Cnergyico Pakistan with 9.41 million shares.
Shares of 320 companies were traded on Friday, of which 162 registered an increase, 130 recorded a fall, and 28 remained unchanged.
