KARACHI: The stock market traded in a narrow range on Friday with the benchmark index losing 27.90 points, or 0.06 per cent, from a day ago.

It oscillated between the intraday high of 104 points and low of 300 points before settling in at 44,872 points at the close of trading.

According to Topline Securities, major contribution to the index came from The Searle Company Ltd, National Refinery Ltd, Attock Refinery Ltd, Colgate Palmolive Ltd and Kohat Cement Ltd. These stocks cumulatively contributed 366 points to the index.

Stocks that weighed down on the KSE-100 index included Agriautos Industries Ltd, Murree Brewery Company Ltd, Highnoon Laboratories Ltd, Pakistan Tobacco Company Ltd and MCB Bank. These stocks took away 317 points from the index cumulatively.

As many as 267 million shares worth Rs9 billion changed hands. TPL Corporation remained the volume leader with 15.3m shares.

Sectors that performed well were steel, refinery, power, and oil and gas marketing companies. Selling pressure was witnessed in cement, banking, energy exploration and production and technology sectors.

According to Arif Habib Ltd, the rupee slipped further in the open market to cross 173 against the dollar, which was a cause of concern for foreign investors. Overseas investors have been sustaining losses on old positions in banking and energy exploration and production sectors.

JS Global Capital expects the stock market to stay range-bound in coming sessions. “(We) recommend investors to avail any downside as an opportunity to buy stocks from the banking and textile sectors,” its daily stock market note said.

Top gainers in the KSE-100 index were Hascol Petroleum Ltd, which went up 8.5pc, followed by Feroze 1888 Mills Ltd (6.03pc), Sui Northern Gas Pipelines (5.58pc), Colgate-Palmolive (4.21pc) and AGP Ltd (3.72pc).

Stocks that lost their values the most were K-Electric, down 9.5pc, followed by Ghani Glass Ltd (5.58pc), Murree Brewery Company Ltd (3.74pc), Agriauto Industries Ltd (3.06pc) and Pioneer Cement Ltd (2.54pc).The market stayed mostly sluggish during the outgoing week and lost cumulatively 1,562 points or 3.4pc over the preceding week — a decline that AKD Securities attributed to a 25 basis points increase in the benchmark interest rate as well as upside risks to inflation.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2021