KARACHI: After gaining in the previous two sessions, the Pakistani stocks could not maintain their momentum at Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) and closed in the negative zone. The analysts believed that the investors were taking profits on their investments in cement, energy and banking sectors.
The Karachi share Index (KSE-100) went down by 223.94 points (0.55 per cent) after closing at 40,807.09 against the previous closing of 41,031.03 points. The market went up to 41,067.15 points intraday trading and record as low as 40,751.54 points.
Trading volume slightly jumped to 397.7 million shares today as compared to 389.1 million traded in the previous session, according to PSX website data. The daily traded value down to Rs 13.160 billion from Rs 16.026 billion in the previous session, the data said.
According to an analyst at AKD Brokerage House, the market was unable to sustain yesterday’s momentum as a sustained pickup in coronavirus cases, which is above 3,000 infections daily. Furthermore, the market witnessed logistical challenges for a swift rollout of vaccines formed a basis for profit-taking today.
While trading in the second half showed promise as selective interest was evident in cement and tech, however, profit-taking at higher levels pared back all intra-day gains, he claimed.
With activity at par with yesterday, the overall market traded 642 million shares where UNITY recorded the highest volumes for the day with 53 million shares traded followed by TRG (46 million shares traded) and KEL (23 million shares).
PPL contributed the most to the index decline of 2.33% while TRG provided the biggest boost of 6.56% to the benchmark. Driven by board-based profit-taking in cement, energy and banks, the benchmark KSE100 Index closed with a loss of -0.55% to settle at 40,807.09 points.
