PSX turns red despite touching intraday high above 151k

KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) opened in positive territory on Thursday, with the benchmark KSE-100 index making an early surge before slipping into the red by mid-morning as profit-taking set in.

The index began the session strongly, jumping 357.93 points to 150,948 around 9:31am, supported by a trading volume of 891,620 shares. Within a minute, it crossed the psychological barrier of 151,000 points, gaining 624 points to trade at 151,215.01 with over 2.1 million shares changing hands.

By 10:33am, the upward momentum pushed the benchmark to its intraday high of 151,249.62, reflecting a gain of 658.62 points, with trading volume reaching 76.8 million shares.

Sharp reversal

However, the bullish trend did not last. By 11:00am, the market started to slide as selling pressure emerged. At 11:20am, the index had lost 479.67 points, dropping to 150,111, while volumes swelled to nearly 142 million shares.

Minutes later, at 11:24am, the KSE-100 slipped further to 149,975.01, down 615.99 points or 0.41 percent, with volumes crossing 147 million shares.

Despite the fall, the market remains higher in long-term terms, up 91.63 percent compared to last year and 30.27 percent on a year-to-date (YTD) basis. So far today, the benchmark has moved within a day range of 149,956.05 to 151,249.62, while the 52-week range stands between 77,968.74 and 151,261.67.

Market movers

Top gainers included TSPL (up 10.40 percent), ANSM (10.27 percent), KOHP (10.26 percent), FPRM (10.05 percent), ASTM (10.01 percent), PPVC (10.01 percent), JUBS (10.01 percent), JDMT (10.01 percent), SEARL (10 percent) and LEUL (10 percent).

On the other hand, leading losers were DMC (down 9.97 percent), SANSM (8.90 percent), BAFS (8.78 percent), GUSM (7.63 percent), QUET (7.54 percent), JSIL (6.16 percent), CENI (5.66 percent), AMTEX (5 percent), ZTL (4.90 percent) and ECOP (4.84 percent).

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Among KSE-100 constituents, major decliners included MUGHAL (-3.60 percent), INIL (-3.23 percent), UPFL (-3.22 percent), THALL (-2.98 percent), HMB (-2.83 percent) and MEBL (-2.75 percent). On the gaining side, SEARL (10 percent), SRVI (4.35 percent), PAEL (4.06 percent), PIBTL (2.76 percent), AICL (2.39 percent) and IBFL (1.77 percent) stood out.

Previous session

On Wednesday, the KSE-100 had closed at 150,591 points, gaining 820.26 points or 0.55 percent. The index touched an intraday high of 151,261.67 and a low of 149,931.67 during the previous session, with total volumes at 275.22 million shares.

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