PSX begins week on negative note, loses over 200 points

• Market closes at 41,348.19 points with a loss of 282.16 points.
• Benckmark KSE-100 witnesses under-pressure session due to concerns over mounting inflation.
• Shares of 303 companies were traded during session.

KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) started the week on a negative note as the bulls staged a comeback and the market closed with a loss of 200 points on Monday. 

The market opened in the green but soon witnessed profit-taking. 

At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index closed at 41,348.19 points with a loss of 282.16 points or 0.68%.

A report from Arif Habib Limited noted that the benchmark KSE-100 index witnessed an under-pressure session due to concerns over mounting inflation and an expected rate hike in the upcoming monetary policy.

The volumes remained dry on the main board although decent volumes were witnessed in the third-tier stocks.

The sectors contributing to the performance include fertiliser (-72.6 points), cement (-60.8 points), exploration and production(-33.2 points), automobile assembler (-18.9 points) and pharmaceuticals (-12.9 points).

Shares of 303 companies were traded during the session. At the close of trading, 88 scrips closed in the green, 197 in the red, and 18 remained unchanged.

Overall trading volumes dropped to 86.6 million shares compared with Friday’s tally of 154.03 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs3.04 billion.

Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited was the volume leader with 12.47 million shares traded, gaining Rs0.93 to close at Rs36.40. It was followed by Agritech Limited with 8.03 million shares traded, gaining Rs0.20 to close at Rs6.74 and Pakistan Refinery Limited with 4.83 million shares traded, losing Rs0.56 to close at Rs16.91.