The initial rally could not be sustained during trading on Tuesday at the Pakistan Stock Exchange and the benchmark KSE-100 index closed at 176,466.99 with a decline of 508.68 points.
The market witnessed a buying trend in the beginning of trading and the KSE-100 index reached the highest level of the day at 177,800.28 points. However, later due to selling pressure, the index went into the negative zone and a low of 176,375 points was also recorded during trading.
According to the market data of the Pakistan Stock Exchange, about 391.91 million shares of companies included in the KSE-100 were traded. In total, 174 companies increased their share prices while 292 companies recorded a decline in their shares.
Selling in banking and cement sectors
One of the main reasons for the decline in the market was selling in the shares of the heavyweight banking and cement sectors.
Meesaq Bank, MCB Bank, Bank Alfalah, Lucky Cement and Pakistan Petroleum were among the stocks that negatively impacted the KSE-100 index.
On the other hand, Systems Limited, Engro Holdings, Engro Fertilizers, Oil and Gas Development Company and AGP supported the index.
Systems Limited contributed the most to the index by adding 107.90 points, while Engro Holdings added 88.32, Engro Fertilizers added 80.90 and OGDC added 68.34 points.
In contrast, Meesaq Bank, down 93.30 points, MCB Bank, down 74.94 points, Bank Alfalah, down 65.38 points and Lucky Cement, down 61.35 points put pressure on the index.
Overall trading activity
According to PSX data, a total of about 784.47 million shares were traded across all markets on Tuesday, while the value of trade was Rs37.41 billion.
A total of 396,451 trades were conducted during the day.
On the other hand, the KMI-30 index saw a slight improvement. The index closed at 251,849.49 points after increasing by 192.66 points or 0.08 percent.
The KMI-30 saw a high of 253,281.08 points and a low of 251,765.66 points during the trading session.
The overall market trend suggests that investors have turned cautious after initial buying. Buying in some large-cap stocks in the energy, technology and fertilizer sectors limited the index’s decline to some extent.
