Staff Reporter
Karachi
Pakistan’s stock market had another day of choppy trading on Thursday. The market rose marginally by 26 points as investors were concerned over a rise in cases of Covid-19 in the country.
Earlier, the market opened with minor ups and downs, however, the two positive economic indicators helped the KSE-100 index surge around 250 points in early hours. Later, investors’ excitement died down and selling pressure emerged, which dragged the market down.
At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded an increase of 26.03 points, or 0.06%, to settle at 40,540.70 points.
Arif Habib Limited, in its report, stated that the market continued to trade in a narrow range amid volumes of less than 200 million shares, as recorded in the past couple of sessions.
Uncertainty over a fresh lockdown and rising Covid cases amid finalisation of an IMF review kept things in limbo in the market. HBL, UBL and Lucky Cement contributed some points to the index, but it was pulled back by Oil and Gas Development Company, Pakistan Petroleum and DG Khan Cement.
International oil prices also remained range bound, causing exploration and production stocks to trade in a narrow range, especially Pakistan Oilfields.
Overall, the banking sector helped the index climb 230 points during the session, however, it ended the day at +26 points, the report said.
JS Global analyst Maaz Mulla said the market remained volatile throughout the day, hitting intra-day high of +230 points and intra-day low of -83 points. The index closed at 40,541, up 26 points.
