KARACHI: Trading activity remained lacklustre at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Thursday, where the index traded in a narrow band virtually closing flat as late selling wiped out early gains.
The KSE-100 index opened up but it soon entered the red zone and started losing ground after mid-day. The range-bound session had a dull activity amid inflationary concerns and monetary policy announcement due on Tuesday (March 8).
Interest was seen in the exploration and production sector as benchmark Brent crude oil prices climbed close to $120 a barrel in the international market, with Russian oil exports disrupted as traders try to avoid becoming entangled in sanctions.
Market players are also closely monitoring developments regarding the International Monetary Fund (IMF) review.
The IMF team will kick-start virtual parleys with Pakistani authorities on March 4, and these talks will continue for two weeks for the completion of the seventh review under the $6 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) programme.
Traders are also closely watching the outcome of the plenary session of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) starting from February 21 to March 4 in Paris for the clue regarding the rupee’s future course.
The FATF's upcoming decision would decide whether Pakistan should exit from the grey list.
At the close, the benchmark KSE-100 index edged up 11.60 points, or 0.03%, to settle at 44,525.72 points.
A report from Arif Habib Limited noted the market opened under pressure as inflationary concerns arise due to higher fuel prices and overheated commodities cycle.
“The cement sector stayed in the red zone due to mounting international coal prices,” the report stated, adding that moreover, trade deficit widened by 82.2% during the first eight months (July-February) of the current fiscal year 2021-22 and reached $31.959 billion compared to $17.535 billion during the same period of 2020-21.
The brokerage house stated that the mainboard activity remained dull. In the last trading hour, value buying was observed mainly in the exploration and production sector.
Sectors contributing to the performance include exploration and production (+131.6 points), power (+21.7 points), fertiliser (+13.5 points), investment banks (+9.1 points) and automobile assembler (+4.3 points).
Shares of 358 companies were traded during the session. At the close of trading, 116 scrips closed in the green, 209 in the red, and 33 remained unchanged.
Overall trading volumes dropped to 188.66 million shares compared with Wednesday’s tally of 235.03 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs7.36 billion.
TRG Pakistan was the volume leader with 15.14 million shares traded, gaining Rs0.41 to close at Rs79.13. It was followed by Oil and Gas Development Company with 11.65 million shares traded, gaining Rs1.99 to close at Rs94.98, and Fauji Cement Company with 8.87 million shares traded, losing Rs0.06 to close at Rs17.11.