Investors absorb geopolitical shock, return to blue-chip stocks despite US-Iran tensions
A blistering opening rally at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) lost steam on Wednesday as investors opted to lock in profits after pushing the benchmark KSE-100 Index up by more than 3,000 points in early trade. Despite surrendering a significant portion of those gains, the market still finished with a robust advance, with the benchmark index closing at 175,285.78, gaining 1,766.97 points, or 1.02%, over the previous session.
After surging more than 3,000 points in early trade, the market steadily gave up part of its gains as investors booked profits, although buying interest remained strong enough to keep the benchmark comfortably in positive territory at the close.
During the session, the KSE-100 index touched an intraday high of 176,701.38 before retreating sharply from its peak. It later fell to an intraday low of 173,870.27 as sellers emerged, although the benchmark remained comfortably above the previous day’s close throughout the session.
Read: PSX plunges 6,400 points on ME tensions
The trading trend suggested that investors had largely digested the geopolitical shock that rattled equities a day earlier, prompting bargain hunting at the open. However, the sharp morning rally also encouraged traders to book quick gains, resulting in a steady pullback from the day’s highs.
Buying interest remained concentrated in commercial banks, cement, automobile assemblers, oil and gas exploration companies, oil marketing companies, refineries and power stocks, which kept the benchmark index in positive territory until the close.
Overall trading volume decreased to 583.8 million shares from Tuesday’s total of 912.6 million while the value of traded shares stood at Rs26 billion.
Meanwhile, shares of 495 companies were traded, of which 361 stocks closed higher, 104 fell, and 30 remained unchanged. K-Electric was the volume leader with trading in 52.7 million shares, losing Rs0.09 to close at Rs7.43.
