The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 index closed nearly 100 points lower on Wednesday as investors opted to book profits in volatile trade.
The KSE-100 rose about 200 points in intraday trading, but profit-taking erased the gains and pushed the index into negative territory.
The benchmark index fell 99.53 points, or 0.20%, to settle at 49,431.48 at the close of trading.
“Pakistani stock market witnessed a profit-taking session today as investors opted to liquidate their profits,” brokerage firm Topline Securities said in a post-market report.
Banks, automobiles, and IT stocks such as UBL, MEBL, MCB, MTL, and SYS contributed positively by adding 92 points. However, HUBC, OGDC and MLCF lost a total of 88 points, the brokerage said.
On the economic front, the Pakistani rupee recorded a significant depreciation by 1.16% against the US dollar in the interbank market on Wednesday. According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the local currency settled at Rs 280.29 after depreciating by Rs 3.26 in the interbank market.
The trading volume of the all-stock index was 332.6 million shares, down slightly from the previous day’s 368.34 million shares.
Stock trading value decreased to 8.8 billion rupees from 10.4 billion rupees in the previous session.
Pak Refinery remained the volume leader with 75.71 million shares, followed by K-Electric Ltd with 37.46 million shares and Pak Int.Bulk with 23.63 million shares.
Shares of 347 companies traded on Wednesday, of which 141 were up, 185 were down, and 21 were unchanged.