Observer Report
Karachi
Bears staged a comeback at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Wednesday as the benchmark KSE-100 index shed nearly 30 points. This came amid a lack of positive triggers and an uncertain economic and political outlook.
The KSE-100 index endured a range-bound session, which ended on a bearish note. Selling pressure was noted in cement, auto, banking and fertiliser sectors. However, Engro Corporation in the fertiliser sector, which announced its financial results for the quarter and half-year ended June 30, 2020 towards the end of the session, erased some of the losses.
Moreover, rupee depreciation against the US dollar coupled with uncertainty in international oil markets dented investors’ sentiment.
At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded a decrease of 29.90 points, or 0.07%, to settle at 40,154.11 points. Arif Habib Limited, in its report, stated that the market remained range bound between -119 points and +241 points and closed the session in the red.
Exploration and production stocks mainly added points to the index whereas cement and banking sector stocks faced selling pressure, it said. The cement sector posted volumes of 75.4 million shares, followed by technology firms (54.5 million) and oil and gas marketing companies (40.3 million).
Sectors contributing to the market performance included fertiliser (+63 points), exploration and production (+40 points), oil and gas marketing companies (+10 points), cement (-25 points), technology (-23 points), auto (-21 points), power (-20 points) and banking (-20 points).
