KARACHI: Bears returned to the stock market on Thursday, fanning concerns about the sustainability of the physiological level of 46,000 points, according to Arif Habib Ltd.

International coal prices stayed on the higher side, which kept cement stocks under pressure. The benchmark index failed to sustain the gains of recent sessions as investors resorted to profit-taking in all sectors in the last trading hour.

As a result, the KSE-100 index lost 399.72 points or 0.86pc to close at 45,940.04 points.

The trading volume increased 17.6 per cent to 286 million shares while the traded value went down 6.7pc to $53m on a day-on-day basis.

Sectors that took away the highest number of points from the benchmark index included commercial banking (120.58 points), fertiliser (63.16 points), technology and communication (57.49 points), oil and gas exploration (42.72 points) and cement (34.96 points).

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included TeleCard Ltd (45.41m shares), TPL Properties Ltd (16.95m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (13.71m shares), TPL Corporation Ltd (11.26m shares) and Bank of Punjab Ltd (10.52m shares).

Shares contributing positively to the index included Indus Motor Company Ltd (10.88 points), Dawood Hercules Corporation Ltd (7.62 points), Pakistan State Oil Company Ltd (7.14 points), Millat Tractors Ltd (6.23 points) and Bank Alfalah Ltd (5.29 points).

Stocks that took away the maximum number of points from the index included Habib Bank Ltd (33.71 points), MCB Bank Ltd (31.06 points), Engro Corporation Ltd (28.9 points), The Hub Power Company Ltd (24.13 points) and Systems Ltd (22.54 points).

Stocks recording the biggest declines in percentage terms on a day-on-day basis were Pakistan Telecomm­unication Company Ltd (7.56pc), Packages Ltd (6.93pc), Fatima Fertiliser Company Ltd (4.87pc), Gadoon Textile Mills Ltd (4.04pc) and K-Electric Ltd (3.55pc).

Foreign investors were net sellers as they offloaded shares worth $4.46m.

Published in Dawn, February 11th, 2022