ISLAMABAD: After an early bullish trend while gaining over 50 points, the 100-index of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) turned bearish in the later part on Monday while losing 368.26 points with a negative change of 0.57 percent after the investors opted for profit-taking. At close, the index settled at 64,269.38 points against 64,637.64 points on Friday.
On the first day of the week, 382,012,304 shares valuing Rs.14.076 billion were entertained against 643,307,931 shares valuing Rs.20.021 billion the previous day.
In total, 363 companies traded their shares in the stock market; 96 of them remained in green with gain, 249 suffered loss, whereas the share prices of 18 remained constant.
Like the previous day, K-Electric remained the volume leader among the top three trading companies with 55,031,681 shares at Rs.5.85 per share, followed by Pak Int. Bulk with 37,652,000 shares at Rs.7.09 per share, whereas WorldCall Telecom settled as number three from the top with 25,000,275 shares at Rs.1.38 per share.
Philip Morris (Pakistan) Limited recorded a maximum appreciation of Rs.44.34 per share price to settle at Rs.635.59, whereas Pakistan Hotels Developers Limited settled as the runner-up with an increase of Rs.33.94 in its per share price to close at Rs.508.94.
Nestle Pakistan Limited recorded a maximum decline of Rs.200.00 per share to settle at Rs.8,000.00, followed by Rafhan Maize Products Company Limited with a decrease of Rs.150.00 to close at Rs.9,400.00.
Bullish and Bearish Trend at PSX
The 100-index witnessed both a bearish and bullish trend in the market during the last couple of months. However, bullish sentiments dominated the market, where the 100 Index witnessed a historic upward trend after gaining about 60%.
Meanwhile, brief bearish sentiments were sustained in the market during the last quarter of December till the 26th of the month due to the profit-taking and correction process. In general, the market gained more than 14000 points during the last two months. In November 2023, the 100-index crossed 8000 points, while during the last five months, the 100-index benchmark achieved a historic 24000-plus points.
Moreover, in recent months, the 100-index witnessed a number of consecutive all-time highs. After setting a number of records in the middle of November, the index surpassed a new historic high and crossed the 58000 benchmark. At the end of November, the index crossed the 60000 benchmark. Meanwhile, the market continued the same momentum in the first quarter of December, and till December 12, it achieved over 5000 points to reach above 66000 points.
However, from December 13, the market turned to a huge bearish trend with a huge fall on December 20 (over 2300 points), followed by another bearish trend of over 1100 points on December 22, again followed by a bloodbath on December 26 by more than 2500 points. Later, the market turned bullish to get over 2900 points, followed by another historic bullish trend on a single day (January 1) to get over 2200 points. However, during the last few days, the market remained mostly stable, with a slight swing both ways.
