KARACHI: The national bourse witnessed across-the-board profit-taking on Tues­day as the index failed to sustain momentum from a day ago, said JS Global in a research note.

The reasons for the dip in share prices included investors’ fear about the impact of the end of industrial subsidies and deep cuts in the development programme to ensure the resumption of the International Monetary Fund loan package.

According to Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corp­o­ration, the latest current account deficit number, growing circular debt and a slump in global crude oil prices also played the role of a catalyst in the bearish close of the benchmark.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 45,817.68 points, down 255.57 points or 0.55 per cent from a day ago.

The trading volume decre­ased 43pc to 210.2 million shares while the traded value went down 35.6pc to $33.5m on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included G3 Technologies Ltd (18.85m shares), Lotte Che­mical Pakistan Ltd (17.91m shares), Hum Network Ltd (14.29m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (11.61m shares) and Telecard Ltd (11.42m shares).

Sectors that took away the highest number of points from the benchmark index included oil and gas exploration (64.64 points), technology and communication (38.68 points), power generation and distribution (36.02 points), cement (33.2 points) and oil and gas marketing (21.62 points).

Shares contributing most negatively to the index included The Hub Power Company Ltd (28.83 points), TRG Pakistan Ltd (24.82 points), Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (23.26 points), Lucky Cement Ltd (22.38 points) and Pakistan Oilfields Ltd (19.2 points).

Stocks that contributed most positively to the index included Engro Fertiliser Ltd (30.52 points), Fauji Ferti­liser Company Ltd (20.56 points), Bank Alfalah Ltd (15.02 points), Lotte Chemical Pakistan Ltd (14.42 points) and Engro Corpora­tion Ltd (9.31 points).

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2022