Political pressure takes toll on PSX

• KSE-100 index closes at 41,435.13 points with a decrease of 0.20%.
• Political developments played on investors' mind, who rushed to safeguard their positions.
• Shares of 337 companies were traded during the session.

KARACHI: The intensifying political heat in the country took a toll on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Wednesday as the benchmark KSE-100 index dipped over 80 points during a tumultuous session.

Today’s session saw the index trade in a narrow range, selling pressure was evident towards the day's end, which dragged the market into the negative zone.

Ishaq Dar being sworn in as the finance minister, and subsequent developments played on the minds of investors, who rushed to safeguard their positions.

In addition, fluctuations in global commodity prices, particularly dollar and oil, further dampened market sentiment and restrained it from posting any significant gains.

At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index closed at 41,435.13 points with a decrease of 83.10 points or 0.20%.

A report from Arif Habib Limited noted that the benchmark KSE-100 index witnessed a bullish trend today as the index traded in the green zone for most of the session.

“PSX opened in the positive zone although in the last trading hour investors opted for profit taking as political noise built up,” it added.

The brokerage house stated that volumes continued to remain decent in the main board, on the flip side hefty volumes were witnessed in the third-tier stocks.

Shares of 337 companies were traded during the session. At the close of trading, 138 scrips closed in the green, 165 in the red, and 34 remained unchanged.

Overall trading volumes declined to 220.56 million shares compared with Tuesday's tally of 230.65 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs8.02 billion.

TPL Properties was the volume leader with 29.3 million shares traded, gaining Rs0.31 to close at Rs21.47. It was followed by Cnergyico PK with 17.89 million shares traded, losing Rs0.01 to close at Rs5.01 and Ghani Global Holdings with 9.73 million shares traded to close at Rs16.86 as value remained unchanged.