KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) extended gains for the second straight day in a range-bound session on Tuesday, with the KSE-100 Index gaining 129.72 points (+0.28 percent) to close at 46,756.80 points.
The market opened on a positive note and remained positive throughout the session. The indices maintained their upward momentum despite mixed economic indicators, as the Consumer Price Index-based inflation increased to 31.4 percent during the month of September 2023 on a year-on-year basis. The inflation had increased to 27.4 percent during August.
On the other hand, the trade deficit improved to $1.49 billion in September against $2.16 billion in August, showing an improvement of 31.13 percent on a month-on-month basis. Meanwhile, the rupee’s continuous appreciation against the US dollar provided some confidence to investors in the market. The rupee closed September as the world’s best-performing currency, appreciating by 6.19 percent against the US dollar, its second-highest monthly gain since 2014.
The benchmark index traded in a range of 193.63 points, showing an intraday high of 46,820.71 points and an intraday low of 46,627.08 points, which was the previous close. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index gained 55.28 points (+0.18 percent) to close at 31,428.21 points, while KMI All Share Islamic Index gained 37.80 points (+0.17 percent) to close at 22,892.75 points.
Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index decreased by 5.18 million to 95.17 million shares against 100.35 million shares traded a session earlier. The overall market volumes increased by 10.59 million shares to 213.19 million shares against 202.60 million shares traded a session earlier.
Among scrips, WTL topped the volumes with 60.70 million shares, followed by CNERGY (19 million), and OGDC (9.90 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included WTL, CNERGY, OGDC, UNITY, and PIBL, which formed over 49 percent of total volumes.
A total of 326 companies traded shares in the stock exchange against 328 a session earlier, out of which shares of 142 closed up, shares of 154 closed down while shares of 30 companies remained unchanged. A total calling for a 50 per cent increase on funding that the UK has committed so far.
According to The Telegraph, the Western alliance had suffered a series of blows in recent days, with support for Ukraine dropped from a US stop-gap budget bill, election success for a pro-Russian party in Slovakia and rows between Poland and Kyiv over grain supplies.
On Monday, the Russian government claimed that Western fatigue with the war “will grow”. The White House replied that “Vladimir Putin is wrong to think he could outlast the pro-Kyiv alliance”.
Meanwhile, the Telegraph was informed by one of the source in the military that the UK had lost its interest in providing extra support to the war-torn Ukraine. The source said that onus should not be on the UK to provide the “billions” Mr Wallace [former defence secretary] has called for.