PSX witnesses volatile session amid regional tension

Pakistan’s stock witnessed a volatile session on Wednesday as early hope at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) gave way to selling pressure amid rising regional concerns. 

By the close of trading, the index had declined by 1,465.09 points to settle at 167,451.14 points.

PSX benchmark KSE-100 Index opened on a positive note and gained 672.16 points by 9:45am. Buying activity was observed across key sectors, including automobile assemblers, cement, commercial banks, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs, power generation and refinery stocks.

The stocks basic rally was largely driven by the State Bank of Pakistan’s announcement that it had received $1.3 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) programmes, boosting investor confidence. 

However, the momentum proved short-lived as geo-political jitters dampened market sentiment, prompting investors to resort to profit-taking and offloading positions. 

As a result, the KSE-100 index slipped into the red zone and was hovering at 168,015.09 points, down 902.33 points, or 0.54%, with traded volume standing at 148.70 million shares and total traded value at Rs8.95 billion. 

On Tuesday, PSX witnessed a mixed yet largely negative session as investors remained cautious amid geopolitical uncertainty surrounding US-Iran peace negotiations. After commencing trading on a firm footing, the benchmark KSE-100 index moved higher in early trade as renewed buying interest pushed the market to the intra-day high of 171,571.56 points.