Stock market recovers, grows over 400 points

KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) began the trading week on a bearish note, after posting notable gains for the better part of the outgoing week. Monday morning saw the index grow past 66,500 points for a brief time but then plunged down by 367 points to hover around 65,855.71 points by 10:30 a.m.

During the day the index recovered most of the losses, but still closed 200 points below opening. On Tuesday (today), however, the index turned positive again. By the afternoon, the index had posted 428 points, up from 66,012.32 points to hover around 66,440.56 points by noon.

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The growth in the index came from myriad segments, showing an overall improvement in investor confidence. Over 240 million shares traded hands in the first half of the trading day.

The share market has been following the general economic climate in the country, on the back of lower energy prices and expectations of IMF’s approval of next tranche. The sudden shock witnessed on Monday, could be attributed to profit taking and uncertainty of State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) monetary policy announcement today.