KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed a volatile trading session on Tuesday, as the benchmark KSE-100 Index experienced a high jump and a steep fall.
The index stormed past the 42,000-mark (for the first time in 2019) soon after the commencement of the session. However, at noon, the index had nosedived on media reports regarding former president and COAS Pervez Musharraf’s death sentence.
Other major developments of the day included approval of a price hike by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA). According to the regulatory body, gas price for domestic consumers has been increased by 191pc, while that for the fertilizer sector has been hiked by 135pc hike. Similarly, a 31pc surge has been approved for consumers falling under the category of roti tandoor, commercial, industrial, zero-rated export industry, captive power plants, compressed natural gas (CNG), cement and power plants.
The KSE-100 Index marked its intraday high at 42,056.14 before falling steeply by 619.17 points to record its intraday low at 41,025.71. After recovering some its losses, the index managed to settle higher by 123.78 points at 41,768.66. The KMI 30-index saw a similar pattern, registering its high at 67,940.35 and low at 65,982.65 points before closing at 67,656.51 (+844.91 points). On the contrary, the KSE All Share Index failed to recover its losses, ending the day down by 51.44 points at 29,820.47. The advancers to decliners ratio stood at 122 to 232.
The overall market volumes jumped 15pc to 412.29 million on Wednesday. Fauji Foods Limited (FFL +5.52pc) led the volume chart, followed by right shares of Hascol Petroleum Limited (HASCOLR1 -5.86pc) and Unity Foods Limited (UNITY -1.71pc). The scripts had exchanged 40.59 million, 35.64 million and 26.21 million shares, respectively.
Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL +101.59 points) remained the top contributor to the KSE-100 Index on the points table. Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDC +100.26 points) and Habib Bank Limited (HBL +81.16 points) also made decent contributions.
Meanwhile, the board of directors of Dawood Lawrancepur Limited (DLL +0.61pc) approved the disposal of “Lawrencpur” brand to Sach International (Private) Limited (an associate company) at a price of Rs81.5 million. Also, Shifa International Hospital (SHFA +5.00pc) announced that its subsidiary, Shifa Medical Center Islamabad (Pvt) Limited, has entered Rs1 billion equity investment agreement with Interloop Holdings Limited.
