KARACHI: Shares trading on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) remained range-bound on Thursday owing to escalating political unrest in Islamabad, according to Arif Habib Ltd.

The stock market opened in the green zone but the trading pattern stayed volatile throughout the day, with the main-board activity remaining dull. Third-tier stocks witnessed hefty volumes. Profit-booking took place in the last hour, leading the index to close in the red zone.

At the end of trading, the KSE-100 index lost 168.46 points or 0.38 per cent on a day-on-day basis to close at 43,807.23 points.

The trading volume decreased 37.2pc to 148.5 million shares while the traded value went down 48.3pc to $16.6m on a day-on-day basis.

Sectors that took away the highest number of points from the benchmark index included oil and gas exploration (50.73 points), cement (21.82 points), power generation and distribution (20.93 points), technology and communication (19.28 points) and textile composite (17.4 points).

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Flying Cement Ltd (36.23m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (14.57m shares), TPL Properties Ltd (7.61m shares), Unity Foods Ltd (4.93m shares) and K-Electric Ltd (4.85m shares).

Shares contributing positively to the index included United Bank Ltd (11.21 points), Nestle Pakistan Ltd (7.33 points), Fauji Fertiliser Company Ltd (6.89 points), Systems Ltd (5.75 points) and Habib Bank Ltd (5.42 points).

Stocks that took away the maximum number of points from the index included TRG Pakistan Ltd (20.73 points), The Hub Power Company Ltd (20.36 points), Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (18.23 points), Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (12.87 points) and MCB Bank Ltd (11.54 points).

In percentage terms, the largest declines were registered by HBL Growth Fund (2.99pc), Highnoon Laboratories Ltd (2.68pc), Shifa International Hospitals Ltd (2.5pc), Azgard Nine Ltd (2.5pc) and Pakistan Stock Exchange Ltd (2.33pc).

Foreign investors were net sellers as they offloaded shares worth $0.29m.

Published in Dawn, March 18th, 2022