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KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed range-bound activity on Friday amid uncertainty over domestic politics.
According to JS Global, the question mark over the economic outlook also kept investors away from healthy participation in equities trading.
A lack of clarity from Islamabad led to underwhelmed trading on the bourse as the National Assembly session was adjourned without the tabling of a no-trust motion against the prime minister.
Yet the KSE-100 index stayed in the green zone throughout the day with value buying taking place in the last trading hour, said Arif Habib Ltd.
As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 43,551.15 points, up 28.6 points or 0.07 per cent from a day ago.
The trading volume increased 8.1pc to 161.9 million shares while the traded value went down 26.5pc to $22.8m on a day-on-day basis.
Sectors that contributed the highest number of points to the benchmark index included commercial banking (34.92 points), fertiliser (27.51 points), auto (9.13 points), refinery (8.35 points) and investment banking (6.12 points).
Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included WorldCall Telecom Ltd (22.17m shares), Dost Steel Ltd (9.82m shares), Cnergyico PK Ltd (9.4m shares), TeleCard Ltd (7.68m shares) and Pakistan International Bulk Terminal Ltd (7.17m shares).
Shares contributing positively to the index included Lucky Cement Ltd (35.24 points), Habib Bank Ltd (27.75 points), Meezan Bank Ltd (21.43 points), Millat Tractors Ltd (12.87 points) and Engro Fertilisers Ltd (11.74 points).
Stocks that took away the maximum number of points from the index included Systems Ltd (17.13 points), Pakistan Oilfields Ltd (14.54 points), United Bank Ltd (11.14 points), Cherat Cement Company Ltd (10.44 points) and Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (10.37 points).
Shares that recorded the biggest increases in percentage terms included Punjab Oil Mills Ltd (7.17pc), IGI Holdings Ltd (3.68pc), Yousaf Weaving Mills Ltd (3.26pc), Cnergyico PK Ltd (3.14pc) and Fatima Fertiliser Company Ltd (2.83pc).
Foreign investors were net buyers as they purchased shares worth $0.65m.
Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2022
