PSX inches up to 57,078 points as market moves sideways

KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) traded sideways on Monday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining 14.81 points (+0.03 percent) to close at 57,077.96 points.
The market opened on a positive note but took a dip soon to hit the day’s low within the first half an hour trading. The factors behind this consolidation were a 60.87 percent increase in current account deficit for October, which increased to $74 million as compared to $46 million in September 2023. Moreover, the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) based data showed on Friday last that inflation surged by 9.95 percent for the week ended on November 16 and 41.90 percent on a year-on-year basis.
On the other hand, the Pakistani rupee gained 53 paisas (+0.19 percent) against the US dollar in the interbank market. However, this third consecutive improvement in the rupee’s value against the US dollar failed to give a boost to the market.
The benchmark index traded in a range of 570.87 points, showing an intraday high of 57,309.26 points and an intraday low of 56,738.39 points. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index gained 64.27 points (+0.17 percent) to close at 38,382.81 points. Similarly, the KMI All Share Islamic Index gained 8.32 points (+0.03 percent) to close at 28,448.83 points.
Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index decreased by 48.68 million to 314.74 million shares against 363.42 million shares a session earlier. The overall market volumes decreased by 183.31 million shares to 718.29 million shares against 901.60 million shares traded a session earlier.
Among scrips, KEL topped the volumes with 89.79 million shares, followed by WTL (64.62 million) and FFL (50.19 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included KEL, WTL, FFL, PAEL, and HUMNL, which formed around 37 percent of total volumes.
A total of 374 companies traded shares in the stock exchange against 377 companies a session earlier, out of which shares of 199 closed up, shares of 161 companies closed down while shares of 14 companies remained unchanged. A total of 99 companies traded shares in the KSE-100 Index against 98 a session earlier, out of which share prices of 46 companies closed up, 52 closed down and one remained unchanged.- TLTP