PSX jumps 500 points, then loses even more

KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) jumped 500 points right after the market opened on Monday. This was a hopeful reversal from Friday’s losing trend. However, minutes into trading, the benchmark KSE-100 index turned the tide again falling below the opening before 10 AM.

The KSE-100 index opened at 110,322.93 points, and rose to the morning’s highest at 110,845.17 points. Soon after, it tumbled down to 109,948.57 points showing more than 350 points decline from opening stage. By 10:30 AM, the index had recovered some of the losses but was still seen trading below the opening stage.

Looking at the 1-year change, the KSE-100 index had increased by 71.70 per cent by Friday. In terms of the year-to-date (YTD) change, the stock market is down by 4.34 per cent. The 52-week range for the PSX has been between 59,191.86 and 118,735.10 points.

The market had been showing fluctuations lately owing to the mixed economic indicators. On one hand, the latest inflation data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) and the decreased policy rate by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) are lending strength to the investor sentiment. On the other hand, continued judicial turmoil and political uncertainty are causing the investors to be wary.

Around 10:30 AM, the KSE-100 index looked like this: