KARACHI: The equities market witnessed a mixed trend on Thursday as the benchmark index opened on a negative note amid press reports that the government is finding it hard to convince the International Monetary Fund about the need for the recently announced amne­sty scheme.

According to Topline Securities, investors chose to book profits in the first half of the trading session, leading the index to an intraday low of 268 points or 0.62 per cent. However, value-hunting resumed afterwards, helping the market record an intraday high of 366 points or 0.84pc.

Standard Capital Securi­ties said other positive triggers included the prime minister’s meeting with the Chinese foreign minister in connection with the second phase of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. Addi­tion­ally, China’s agreement for the rollover of $4.2 billion debt and the approval of $300 million from the Asian Development Bank for budget financing also induced positive sentiments.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 43,523 points, up 319 points or 0.74pc from a day ago.

The trading volume increased 8.3pc to 149.8m shares while the traded value went up 12.7pc to $31m on a day-on-day basis.

Sectors that contributed the highest number of points to the benchmark index included cement (73.73 points), technology and communication (53.08 points), commercial banking (36.2 points), fertilizer (33.53 points) and oil and gas exploration (31.59 points).

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Treet Corporation Ltd (20.76m shares), TRG Pakistan Ltd (10.2m shares), TeleCard Ltd (9.4m shares), Pak Elektron Ltd (8m shares) and TPL Properties Ltd (5.35m shares).

Shares contributing positively to the index included TRG Pakistan Ltd (53.48 points), Lucky Cement Ltd (36.65 points), Habib Bank Ltd (35.02 points), Fauji Fertiliser Company Ltd (22.16 points) and The Hub Power Company Ltd (20.94 points).

Stocks that took away the maximum number of points from the index included United Bank Ltd (14.05 points), Engro Corporation Ltd (9.17 points), Fatima Fertiliser Company Ltd (7.95 points), Systems Ltd (7.56 points) and Shifa International Hospitals Ltd (3.55 points).

Published in Dawn, March 25th, 2022