PSX retains 67,000 milestone despite profit-taking

KARACHI
Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) turned to profit-taking on Friday after hitting its highest close ever in history a session earlier, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index shedding 137.02 points (-0.20 percent) to close at 67,005.10 points.
The market opened on a positive note, hit the day’s high within the first few minutes and turned to profit-taking. The benchmark index hit an intra-day low of 66,822.43, but some late-session buying helped it regain the position above 67,000. The index remained range-bound throughout the session.
Talking to reporters at the PSX on Friday, Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Muhammad Aurangzeb said the government was hopeful of signing a staff-level agreement (SLA) on a new “larger and a longer programme” with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by the end of the current fiscal year. “We are hopeful that by the time we wrap up this fiscal year i.e. end June to early July, we reach at least a staff-level agreement with the IMF,” Aurangzeb said as a gong ceremony was held to welcome the finance minister.
The finance czar also convened a meeting with Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Jameel Ahmad to discuss ways to enhance financing and lending to priority sectors to stimulate economic growth and development in the country.
The benchmark index traded in a range of 485.21 points, showing an intraday high of 67,307.63 points and an intraday low of 66,822.42 points. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index gained 92.56 points (+0.21 percent) to close at 44,562.88 points. Similarly, the KMI All Share Islamic Index gained 7.09 points (+0.02 percent) to close at 31,562.81 points.
Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index decreased to 142.21 million shares from 231.31 million shares a session earlier, while the overall market volumes decreased to 313.04 million shares from 421.12 million shares a session earlier. Among scrips, PIAA topped the volumes with 39.19 million shares, followed by PTC (32.21 million) and CNERGY (18.95 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included PIAA, PTC, CNERGY, KEL, and AGL, which formed over 38 percent of total volumes.
A total of 341 companies traded shares in the stock exchange against 350 a session earlier, out of which shares of 134 closed up, shares of 188 companies closed down while shares of 19 companies remained unchanged. A total of 96 companies traded shares in the KSE-100 Index against 95 a session earlier, out of which share prices of 39 companies closed up, 53 companies closed down and four remained unchanged.