Stocks hover around Supreme Court decision on election date

KARACHI: Pakistan stocks hovered around a decision by the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SBP) regarding day for holding election in provinces.

The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) ended 40,431 points from previous day’s closing of 40,510 points, showing a decline of 97 points.

Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that another range bound session was recorded at the PSX during the day.

The market started in the negative zone and continued to trade in the negative territory for the majority of the trading session, reaching an intraday low of 480.64 points as investors chose to remain cautious due to the Supreme Court decision regarding the provincial elections.

After the decision was announced the market welcomed much-needed clarity to the political landscape as volumes remained healthy across the board after a slow start to the week.

Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P’s (-58.8 points), Cement (-37.5 points), Commercial Banks (-14.1 points), Miscellaneous (-6.8 points), and Sugar & Allied Industries- (-4.5 points).

Volumes increased from 126.3 million shares to 167.3 million shares (+32.5 per cent DoD). The average traded value also increased by 61.5 per cent to USD 34.9 million as against USD 21.6 million.

Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes are WTL, HUBC, MLCF, CNERGY and MCB.