KARACHI: Trading on the Pakistan Stock Exchange remained lacklustre on Monday as uncertainty over the International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan programme made investors cautious.

According to Topline Securities, the benchmark index achieved an intraday high of 47,442 points. Selling pressure ensued, however, and the KSE-100 index closed at 47,115.04 points down 180.76 points or 0.38 per cent from last Friday.

In addition to the lack of clarity over the resumption of the loan from the international lender of last resort, expectations of a gas price hike coupled with higher international oil prices also kept inflationary concerns intact and market gains in check, it added.

Market participation decreased 22.3pc to 364.9 million shares on a day-on-day basis.

Sectors contributing to the benchmark index included fertiliser (24.24 points), insurance (8.35 points), tobacco (5.56 points), refinery (2.37 points) and leather and tanneries (0.48 points).

Stocks that contributed significantly to the traded volume included Hum Network Ltd (39.57m shares), TeleCard Ltd (30.08m shares), First National Equities Ltd (25.99m shares), Ghani Global Holdings Ltd (20.95m shares) and WorldCall Telecom Ltd (15.2m shares).

Stocks that contributed positively to the index included Fauji Fertiliser Company Ltd (30.81 points), Lucky Cement Ltd (23.52 points), Habib Bank Ltd (19.52 points), Engro Fertilisers Ltd (17.01 points) and Pakistan Oilfields Ltd (9.77 points).

Shares that contributed negatively included Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (15.29 points), Avanceon Ltd (13.71 points), The Hub Power Company Ltd (12.94 points), United Bank Ltd (12.32 points) and MCB Bank Ltd (11.14 points).

Stocks recording the highest gains in percentage terms included Fauji Fertiliser Company Ltd, which went up 1.79pc, followed by Pakistan Tobacco Company Ltd (1.62pc), Engro Fertilisers Ltd (1.57pc), Lucky Cement Ltd (1.12pc) and Nestle Pakistan Ltd (1.04pc).

Foreign investors were net sellers as they offloaded shares worth $0.38m.

Published in Dawn, November 9th, 2021