KARACHI: Stock prices came under pressure on Friday as many parliamentarians from the ruling party publicly stated they would side against the prime minister in the upcoming vote of confidence.

According to Topline Securities, another major reason for the steep decline in share prices was the rebalancing of the Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) Small Cap Index, which resulted in the exclusion of Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Ltd, Kot Addu Power Company Ltd and Fauji Fertiliser Company Ltd. The decision compoun­ded pressure on stock rates in the last hours of trading.

Moreover, the rupee’s devaluation against the dollar also played a role in worsening investors’ sentiments, as per Arif Habib Ltd. Trading remained dull in the first session while across-the-board selling took place in the second session, it added.

JS Global said it expects range-bound activity going forward. It recommended that investors should take advantage of any downside, particularly in the banking and exploration and energy sectors.

At the end of trading, the KSE-100 index lost 777.26 points or 1.77 per cent on a day-on-day basis to close at 43,029.97 points.

The trading volume increased 21.5pc to 180.4 million shares while the traded value went up 113.4pc to $35.4m on a day-on-day basis.

Sectors that took away the highest number of points from the benchmark index included commercial banks (158.35 points), technology and communication (150.27 points), oil and gas exploration (140.39 points), cement (113.09 points) and oil and gas marketing (54.28 points).

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included WorldCall Telecom Ltd (13.48m shares), Ghani Global Holdings Ltd (10.05m shares), K-Electric Ltd (8.82m shares), Pak Elektron Ltd (7.24m shares) and TeleCard Ltd (7.18m shares).

Shares contributing positively to the index included Engro Fertilisers Ltd (35.76 points), Fauji Fertiliser Company Ltd (35.25 points), Bank AL Habib Ltd (10.17 points), Murree Brewery Company Ltd (6.79 points) and Habib Metropolitan Bank Ltd (4.66 points).

Stocks that took away the maximum number of points from the index included Systems Ltd (76.82 points), Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (72.8 points), Habib Bank Ltd (64.47 points), TRG Pakistan Ltd (60.63 points) and Oil and Gas Develop­ment Company Ltd (54.01 points).

In percentage terms, the largest declines were registered by Yousaf Weaving Mills Ltd (6.27pc), TRG Pakistan Ltd (5.96pc), Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (5.75pc), National Refinery Ltd (5.51pc) and D.G. Khan Cement Company Ltd (5.48pc).

Foreign investors were net sellers as they offloaded shares worth $2.6m.

Published in Dawn, March 19th, 2022