The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) staged a recovery on Tuesday after a volatile start to trading, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index moving between gains and losses before returning to positive territory by midday.
The market opened on a firm footing and initially traded in the green. However, selling pressure soon emerged, dragging the benchmark index into negative territory. By around 10:03am, the KSE-100 had slipped 351.74 points to 170,248.46, while trading volume stood at more than 27.66 million shares.
The downturn proved short-lived as buying interest returned to the market. The index erased its losses and climbed sharply, reaching 171,527.65 points by about 11:00am, a gain of 927.45 points from the previous close. Trading activity also picked up during the recovery, with volumes crossing 61.87 million shares.
By 12:09pm, the benchmark index was trading at 171,189.41 points, up 589.21 points, or 0.35 percent. Total traded volume had risen to 82.13 million shares.
During the session, the market touched an intraday high of 171,527.65 points and a low of 170,248.46 points, highlighting the choppy nature of trading. The day’s movement kept the index within a range of more than 1,279 points.
Despite recent fluctuations, the PSX remains significantly higher than a year ago, with the benchmark index showing a gain of 44 percent over the past 12 months. On a year-to-date basis, however, the market remains down 1.65 percent.
Over the past 52 weeks, the KSE-100 Index has traded between a low of 115,887.49 points and a record high of 191,032.73 points.
Among the most actively traded stocks during the session were WorldCall Telecom, Dewan Cement, OBOY, Treet Battery Limited and The Bank of Punjab. Other heavily traded counters included Security Papers, International Industries Tanzania, Thatta Cement, Fauji Foods and Pace Pakistan.
On the gaining side, TSPL led the advancers with a rise of just over 10 percent. Strong gains were also recorded in MWMP, SHCM, DAAG, Kohat Textile Mills, PSYL, GEMNETS, TICL, SZTM and Pak-Qatar.
Meanwhile, TSMF topped the list of decliners after losing more than 10 percent. Other notable laggards included KPUS, IDSM, FIMM, International Industries Tanzania, ASLPS, POWERPS, SUHJ, AHTM and OML.
