KARACHI: Concerns about the economic outlook, rupee depreciation and the likely hawkish stance in the monetary policy announcement due next week kept the shares market in the bearish zone on Friday.

According to Arif Habib Ltd, a lack of positive triggers resulted in across-the-board selling on the bourse after cyclical stocks came under pressure in the initial hours of trading.

The KSE-100 index lost 123.06 points or 0.28 per cent to close at 43,395.78 points.

“Moving forward, we expect the market to remain volatile and recommend a cautious approach,” it said.

Market participation decreased 10.6pc to 179.2 million shares while the value of traded shares went down 23.1pc to $37.9m.

Sectors taking away the highest number of points from the benchmark index included oil and gas exploration (36.62 points), technology and communication (33.14 points), commercial banking (32.67 points), textile composite (17.11 points) and power generation and distribution (15.41 points).

Stocks that contributed significantly to the traded volume included TRG Pakistan Ltd (14.62m shares), Treet Corporation Ltd (14.24m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (13.62m shares), Hascol Petroleum Ltd (8.16m shares) and TPL Properties Ltd (8.02m shares).

Shares contributing positively to the index were Nestle Pakistan Ltd (21.40 points), TRG Pakistan Ltd (15.59 points), Fauji Fertiliser Company Ltd (13.37 points), Meezan Bank Ltd (12.50 points) and Bank Alfalah Ltd (12.49 points).

Stocks that took away the maximum points from the index included Systems Ltd (40.02 points), Bank AL Habib Ltd (21.32 points), Dawood Hercules Corporation Ltd (17.44 points), Habib Bank Ltd (17.39 points) and United Bank Ltd (12.56 points).

Stocks recording the biggest declines in percentage terms included Azgard Nine Ltd, which went down 5.86pc, followed by Yousaf Weaving Mills Ltd (3.86pc), Avanceon Ltd (3.49pc), Century Paper and Board Mills Ltd (2.83pc) and Systems Ltd (2.58pc).

Foreign investors remained net sellers as they offloaded shares worth $0.76m on a net basis.

Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2021