KARACHI: Bulls overpowered the bears on Friday after four consecutive days of index declines on the Pakistan Stock Exchange.

Market activity remained sideways throughout the day but the last trading hour shifted the investors’ sentiments to the positive zone, according to Arif Habib Ltd. Trading began with a positive momentum as investors believed the foreign selling spree was finally over. However, foreign selling continued, dragging the index back to the red territory. Hefty volumes were witnessed in the third-tier stocks, it added.

As a result, the KSE-100 index added 178.41 points or 0.41 per cent to close at 44,114.16 points.

Market participation increased 48.5pc to 289.8 million shares while the value of traded shares also went up 22.4pc to $58.5m.

Sectors contributing the highest number of points to the benchmark index included commercial banking (74.02 points), power generation and distribution (53.65 points), fertiliser (48.20 points), cement (33.77 points) and pharmaceutical (15.05 points).

Stocks that contributed significantly to the traded volume included WorldCall Telecom Ltd (34.18m shares), TPL Properties Ltd (17.21m shares), Byco Petroleum Ltd (15.03m shares), Hum Network Ltd (13.98m shares) and Modaraba Al-Mal (13.24m shares).

Stocks that contributed positively to the index included The Hub Power Company Ltd (49.9 points), Habib Bank Ltd (99.72 points), Lucky Cement Ltd (33.44 points), Systems Ltd (26.93 points) and Engro Corporation Ltd (25.3 points).

Shares that contributed negatively included Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (20.49 points), Oil and Gas Development Ltd (19.04 points), TRG Pakistan Ltd (15.37 points), Mari Petroleum Ltd (14.36 points) and Pakistan Oilfields Ltd (10.84 points).

Stocks recording the biggest increases in percentage terms included Adamjee Insurance Company Ltd, which went up 3.95pc, followed by AGP Ltd (3.44pc), Pak Suzuki Motor Company Ltd (3.16pc), Allied Bank Ltd (3.14pc) and The Hub Power Company Ltd (3.03pc).

Foreign investors remained net sellers as they offloaded shares worth $3.51m on a net basis.

Published in Dawn, November 27th, 2021