Karachi August 24 2023: On Wednesday, the Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) 100-index exhibited a bullish trend, reversing course due to robust buying activity from the insurance sector.
The index saw a gain of 332.14 points, reflecting a positive shift of 0.70 percent, and concluded at 47,750.77 points, as opposed to the previous trading day’s 47,418.63 points.
Trading for the day involved 251,691,469 shares changing hands, marking an increase from the 188,680,077 shares traded the prior day.
The insurance sector notably purchased shares worth USD 15 million, primarily focusing on acquisitions in the banking and oil & gas segments. Specifically, insurance companies invested USD 4.97 million in banks and USD 3.36 million in the oil and gas sectors. Conversely, individual investors sold shares worth USD 4.15 million, while other organizations divested shares amounting to USD 6.2 million. Foreign investors were net sellers of USD 0.1 million despite purchasing from foreign corporations.
Throughout the trading session, a total of 318 companies participated in share transactions on the stock market. Among them, 175 companies experienced gains, 115 endured losses, and the share prices of 28 companies remained unchanged.
The three top-trading companies were Faysal Bank with 21,922,419 shares at Rs 23.94 per share; Nishat ChunPow with 15,282,500 shares at Rs 23.82 per share and Gul Ahmed with 14,664,132 shares at Rs 18.82 per share.
Mari Petroleum observed the most significant increase in share price at PKR 18.86, closing at PKR 1,655.82. Bal Wheels followed closely with a rise of PKR 11.17 per share, reaching PKR 160.07.
Conversely, Nestle Pakistan saw the most substantial decrease, with its share price dropping by PKR 107.17 to close at PKR 7,097.83. Bata (Pak) also experienced a decline of PKR 9.00 per share, concluding at PKR 1,760.00.
