December 20, 2023 (MLN): The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) encountered persistent fluctuations throughout today's session, however, bears gained dominance over the market and the local bourse witnessed yet another decline.

The benchmark KSE-100 index closed the trading session at 62,448.01 showing a decrease of 385.02 points or 0.61%.

The index traded in a range of 2,178.55 points showing an intraday high of 63,261.05 (+428.02) and a low of 61,082.50 (-1,750.53) points.

The total volume of the KSE-100 index was 662.624 million shares.

This week has posed substantial challenges for the local stock market, with the KSE-100 index witnessing a significant decline of 3,681 points in just three trading sessions.

To note, the index witnessed its second-largest single-day drop of 2,371.64 points in yesterday's trading session, just 4 points away to mark its highest daily decline.

This long overdue correction can be attributed to over-leveraged positions in the market, coupled with profit-taking by investors after a prolonged rally.

While talking to Mettis Global News on the downturn, Shayan Jan, a treasury dealer at JS Bank, stated that the market is currently under selling pressure that is expected to persist for some more time.

He further noted that profit booking is currently dominating the market, despite the positive news of the country's current account posting a surplus worth $9 million in November.

To note, this comes as the first surplus recorded in the last 5 months.

Additionally, it is important to mention that the KSE-100 index snapped its 10-week-long streak last week with a marginal decline of 93.6 points or 0.14% WoW.

Of the 100 index companies 24 closed up, 55 closed down, 0 were unchanged, while 21 remained untraded.

KSE-100 index was let down by Commercial Banks with 117.68, Cement with 74.94, Fertilizer with 55.36, Automobile Assembler with 52.05, and Miscellaneous with 46.82 points.

On the flip-side, the index was supported by Power Generation & Distribution with 97.02, Oil & Gas Exploration Companies with 18.37, Leather & Tanneries with 6.2, Engineering with 5.41, and Automobile Parts & Accessories with 4.59 points.

Companies that dragged the index lower were ENGRO with 56.4, OGDC with 54.79, LUCK with 44.23, MTL with 43.85 and PSEL with 43.58 points.

On the other hand, companies that added points to the index were HUBC with 45.15, MARI with 42.17, KEL with 39.37, PPL with 35.05, and EFERT with 17.31 points.

In the broader market, the All-Share index closed at 41,664.54 with a net loss of 302.99 points.

Total market volume was 1,187.369 million shares compared to 1,513.931 from the previous session while traded value was recorded at Rs26.04 billion showing a decrease of Rs3.06bn.

There were 269,761 trades reported in 360 companies with 107 closing up, 244 closing down and 9 remaining unchanged.

To note, the KSE-100 has gained 20,995 points or 50.65% during the fiscal year, whereas the ongoing calendar year has witnessed a cumulative increase of 22,028 points, equivalent to 54.5%.

Copyright Mettis Link News

Posted on: 2023-12-20T16:16:22+05:00