Stocks lose 56 points on profit-taking
The shares market witnessed a range-bound session on Tuesday as investors chose to book profits. Arif Habib Ltd said the benchmark index failed to continue its upward momentum despite opening in the positive zone. Sluggish participation led the benchmark to close in the red zone, it added. The trading volume remained healthy in main-board stocks while hefty volumes were recorded in third-tier stocks. Another reason for negative sentiments on the bourse was the downgrade of big Pakistani banks that credit rating agency Moody’s announced following the downgrade of the country’s sovereign credit rating. Reduced estimates of the economic growth rate for 2022-23 also put a dampener on the investors’ sentiments. As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 42,155.48 points, down 56.16 points or 0.13 per cent from the preceding session. The trading volume increased 26.9pc to 304.8 million shares while the traded value went down 6.5pc to $45.2m on a day-on-day basis.