KARACHI: Trading remained volatile on Friday owing to the concerns about alarming trade data, depreciation in the rupee and a big jump in the cut-off yields of treasury bills that indicated a hawkish stance in the upcoming monetary policy.

According to Arif Habib Ltd, the sharp drop in share prices on Thursday due to a sell-off by mutual funds eventually created an attractive opportunity for value hunters. The market opened on a positive note as aggressive buying took place in the first session. But the momentum was lost in the second session as the rupee closed at an all-time low of 176.77.

At the end of trading, the KSE-100 index lost just 1.32 points to close at 43,232.83 points.

Market participation decreased 25.6pc to 287.7 million shares while the value of traded shares also declined 26.9pc to $58.1m.

Sectors contributing the highest number of points to the benchmark index included commercial banking (211.15 points), fertiliser (103.55 points), power generation and distribution (28.71 points), tobacco (20.24 points) and paper and board (7.42 points).

Stocks that contributed significantly to the traded volume included WorldCall Telecom Ltd (24.35m shares), TPL Properties Ltd (20.55m shares), Byco Petroleum Ltd (16.96m shares), Unity Foods Ltd (16.72m shares) and TRG Pakistan Ltd (10.3m shares).

Stocks that contributed positively to the index included Engro Corporation Ltd (68.8 points), Habib Bank Ltd (65.4 points), United Bank Ltd (46.98 points), Meezan Bank Ltd (41.1 points) and Engro Fertilisers Ltd (29.56 points).

Shares that contributed negatively included Lucky Cement Ltd (73 points), TRG Pakistan Ltd (43.47 points), Maple Leaf Cement Factory Ltd (26.71 points), D.G. Khan Cement Company Ltd (23.62 points) and Cherat Cement Company Ltd (20.7 points).

Stocks recording the biggest increases in percentage terms included Pakistan Tobacco Company Ltd, which went up 6.78pc, followed by Packages Ltd (5.83pc), Fatima Fertiliser Company Ltd (5.26pc), Atlas Honda Ltd (3.97pc) and Allied Bank Ltd (3.86pc).

Foreign investors remained net sellers as they offloaded shares worth $1.27m on a net basis.

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2021