KSE-100 gains pace slowly

ISLAMABAD:       The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Thursday after a brief open in the negative recovered slowly, and the benchmark KSE-100 Share Index reached 43,126.85 points after gaining 133.82 or 0.31% at 11.39am. Selling pressure gained pace just before midday and profit-booking is likely to persist throughout the day.
Earlier, the Index declined by 49.80 points or 0.12%, and hit 42,943.23 points at 10.54am amid lack of positive triggers and prevailing negative sentiments among investors due to rising political noise between the political parties. The market opened at 43,015.81 points today after shedding 214 points yesterday.
The emerging disapproval from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) allies over its policies contributed to the decline as the disagreements between the PTI government and its allies are being taken as a “sign of a brewing political crisis.”
The overall trading volumes fell to 171.3 million shares yesterday compared with Tuesday’s tally of 249.7 million. The value of shares traded yesterday was Rs6.1 billion. At the end of the day, 120 stocks closed higher, 224 declined and 20 remained unchanged.
Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs343 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.