KARACHI: After rece­iving a massive battering overnight, the Pakistan Sto­­ck Exchange (PSX) witnessed another highly volatile session on Tuesday but managed modest gains on selective value-hunting amid sharply lower volume.

Topline Securities Ltd said the PSX experienced a volatile session attempting to recover from Monday’s sharp sell-off. The index initially strengthened, cli­mbing 464 points at its in­­traday high as buying act­ivity resurfaced. However, the momentum was short-lived, with profit-taking pushing the index to an intraday low of 561 points.

Despite the turbulence, the market regained some ground, closing at 116,633.17, up 193.55 poi­nts or 0.17 per cent day-on-day. This volatility can be attributed to the lack of clarity regarding the IMF review and the Staff-Level Agreement, which has kept investor sentiment cautious.

Oil and Gas Develop­ment Company, Hub Power, PSO, Meezan Bank, and Sui Nor­thern Gas Pipeline largely supported the positive mo­­mentum, which collectively added 394 points to the index. Conversely, Systems Ltd, TRG Pakis­t­­an, and United Bank weig­hed on sentiment, wiping out 153 points from the gains.

Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said the market showed recovery led by oil scrips as inv­estors eye resolution of po­­wer sector circular debt amid reports of IMF’s conditional readiness to ap­­pr­ove the government’s Rs1.5tr debt management plan.

He added that speculations ahead of quarter-end, China’s debt rollover and surging global crude oil prices also lifted investor sentiments.

Ali Najib, Head of Sales at Insight Securities, said the market kicked off negatively by carrying forward overnight bearish sentiment. However, value hunters came to rescue the index and did some cherry-picking, which provided the necessary impetus to lift the overall sentiment.

Market activity remai­ned slow as the trading volume fell 14.06pc to 268.09 million shares while the tra­­ded value decreased 7.14pc to Rs19.45bn day-on-day.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Pak Ele­ktron (23.53m shares), TRG Pakistan (22.82m shares), Cnergyico PK (14.45m shares), Worldcall Telecom (12.41m shares) and The Bank of Punjab (10.20m shares).

The shares registering the most significant incre­ases in their share prices in absolute terms were Unilever Foods (Rs23.50), Indus Motor (Rs18.77), Abbott Lab (Rs18.06), Al-Abbas Sugar (Rs13.93) and Pakistan State Oil (Rs11.98).

The companies registering significant decreases in their share prices in absolute terms were Rafhan Maize (Rs91.06), Service Industries (Rs25.45) and Shield Corpora­tion (Rs22.80).

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2025