ISLAMABAD, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) reported bearish trading activities on the opening day of a fresh week on Monday as investors remained on the selling counters after the State Bank of Pakistan's monetary policy statement on Saturday failed to improve the mood at the street.
The Pakistan Stock Exchange's benchmark KSE 100-Index dipped by 0.17 percent, or 69.15 points, to close at 40,929.44 points on Monday when compared with a closing of 40,998.59 points reported on Friday.
The key index is currently trading 22.59 percent, or 11,947.02 points, below its all-time historic peak of 52,876.46 points achieved on May 24 last year, when the Pakistani market was filled with the optimism of the country's inclusion in the Morgan Stanley Capital International's (MSCI) Emerging Markets Index on the back of a strong bullish momentum during the previous year.
During the first three months of the fiscal year of 2018-19, the main index has given away 2.18 percent, or 912.31 points, from 41,910.90 points on July 1, 2018, to 40,998.59 points on Sept. 30, 2018. On the other hand, during the first nine months of the Year 2018, the key index has surged by 1.30 percent, or 527.11 points, from 40,471.48 points on Jan. 1, 2018, to 40,998.59 points on Sept. 30, 2018.
During Monday's trading session, the main index moved in a narrow range of 319.08 points as it touched an intraday high of 41,029.06 points as against an intraday low of 40,709.98 points.
The KSE All-Share Index fell by 0.08 percent, or 23.48 points, to close at 29,920.99 points, the KSE 30-Index slipped by 0.16 percent, or 31.75 points, to end at 19,886.04 points, the KMI 30-Index trimmed down by 0.33 percent, or 228.40 points, to conclude at 69,002.33 points, whereas the Islamic All-Share Index shrank by 0.44 percent, or 87.03 points, to finish the inaugural trading session in the month of Oct. at 19,864.09 points.
Market volumes depleted by 27.17 percent, or 39.650 million shares, to 106.260 million shares on Monday when compared with a trading of 145.910 million shares posted on Friday.
Market capitalization deflated by 0.07 percent, or 5.505 billion rupees (43.176 million U.S. dollars), to 8.397 trillion rupees on Monday when compared with a market capitalization worth 8.403 trillion rupees reported on Friday.
Market value plunged by 46.03 percent, or 2.963 billion rupees, to close at 3.474 billion rupees on Monday as against Friday's figure of 6.438 billion rupees.
Among 366 active scrips on Monday, the prices of 222 issues ended in the red territory, 117 landed in the green zone, whereas values of 27 other companies stayed unchanged at the previous week's levels.
Bank of Punjab, Unity Foods Limited, and Pak Elektron Limited were the top traded companies with turnovers of 21.173 million shares, 14.905 million shares, and 4.002 million shares, respectively.
Rafhan Maize emerged as the top price gainer of the day with an increment of 349.00 rupees to close at 7,569.00 rupees while on the other hand, Unilever Foods XD led the major price shedders with a decrement of 365.00 rupees to finish the trading session at 6,935.00 rupees. (1 U.S. dollar = 127.50 rupees)
