KARACHI: Trading on the stock market stayed bullish on Tuesday owing to the relief package worth 0.54 per cent of GDP announced by the prime minister a day ago, said Arif Habib Ltd.

The relief package is meant to curb the impact of inflation and extend support to the most vulnerable segments of society for the next four months.

Brisk trading led the benchmark index to close in the green territory in spite of headline inflation rising 12.24pc for February versus 12.96pc in the preceding month.

The KSE-100 index gained 342.57 points or 0.77 per cent on a day-on-day basis to close at 44,803.58 points.

The trading volume increased 48.6pc to 309.3 million shares while the traded value went up 72.3pc to $58.9m on a day-on-day basis.

Sectors that contributed the highest number of points to the benchmark index included oil and gas exploration (145.76 points), technology and communication (100.57 points), chemical (34.7 points), power generation and distribution (20.64 points) and refinery (19.16 points).

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included WorldCall Telecom Ltd (29.89m shares), TPL Properties Ltd (19.15m shares), TRG Pakistan Ltd (18.32m shares), TeleCard Ltd (17.21m shares) and Ghani Global Holdings Ltd (13.17m shares).

Shares contributing positively to the index included Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (82.04 points), TRG Pakistan Ltd (68.53 points), Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (59.9 points), Colgate-Palmolive Pakistan Ltd (24.42 points) and National Bank of Pakistan Ltd (23.13 points).

Stocks that took away the maximum number of points from the index included Lucky Cement Ltd (20.22 points), Indus Motor Company Ltd (14.63 points), Meezan Bank Ltd (11.96 points), MCB Bank Ltd (7.26 points) and Fauji Fertiliser Company Ltd (6.12 points).

Stocks recording the biggest increases in percentage terms on a day-on-day basis were TRG Pakistan Ltd (7.5pc), Avanceon Ltd (7.14pc), Azgard Nine Ltd (6.69pc), Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (6.48pc) and Colgate-Palmolive Pakistan Ltd (6.35pc).

Foreign investors were net buyers as they purchased shares worth $0.16m.

Published in Dawn, March 2nd, 2022