KARACHI: Trading on Wednesday remained choppy ahead of the expected mini-budget that’s likely to cause inflationary pressures in the economy.

Initial profit-taking was followed by a duel between bulls and bears throughout the day as a large number of traded shares belonged to third-tier companies, according to Arif Habib Ltd.

“Going forward, we expect range-bound activity to continue... any clarity on the mini-budget is likely to drive the market from here onwards,” said a research note by JS Global.

As a result, the KSE-100 index lost 2.10 points to close at 44,174.97 points.

Market participation decreased 32 per cent to 151.8 million shares while the value of traded shares also went down 24.3pc to $36.9m.

Sectors taking away the highest number of points from the benchmark index included cement (27.86 points), engineering (14.21 points), insurance (11.34 points), investment banking (7.54 points) and chemical (6.17 points).

Stocks that contributed significantly to the traded volume included Ghani Global Holdings Ltd (14.21m shares), Unity Foods Ltd (9.10m shares), TRG Pakistan Ltd (8.49m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (7.11m shares) and Cnergyico PK Ltd (5.94m shares).

Shares contributing positively to the index were Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (33.31 points), TRG Pakistan Ltd (14.50 points), Nestle Pakistan Ltd (10.77 points), Unity Foods Ltd (8.68 points) and Honda Atlas Cars Pakistan Ltd (7.32 points).

Stocks that took away the maximum number of points from the index included Lucky Cement Ltd (18.14 points), United Bank Ltd (10.56 points), EFU General Insurance Ltd (8.71 points), Dawood Hercules Corporation Ltd (8.09 points) and Mari Petroleum Corporation Ltd (7.33 points).

Stocks recording the biggest declines in percentage terms included EFU General Insurance Ltd, which went down 5.4pc, followed by Aisha Steel Mills Ltd (2.49pc), International Steels Ltd (2.41pc), Avanceon Ltd (2.36pc) and Fatima Fertiliser Company Ltd (2.28pc).

Foreign investors remained net buyers as they purchased shares worth $0.273m on a net basis.

Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2021