KARACHI: Stocks closed lower on Friday as investors reacted to the global equity selloff as well as the instability in the currency market.

According to Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation, the reasons for a dip in share prices after a week of Eid holidays included the speculations ahead of the monetary policy announcement due later this month amid surging inflation and uncertainty over the approval of a $7.4 billion Saudi aid package.

As a result, the benchmark settled at 44,840.81 points, down 408.6 points or 0.9 per cent from April 28, the last day of trading before Eid holidays.

The trading volume decreased 41.8pc to 189.48 million shares while the traded value went down 39pc to Rs5.66bn on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Summit Bank Ltd (25.74m shares), Unity Foods Ltd (18.23m shares), Cnergyico PK Ltd (9.12m shares), Pakistan Refinery Ltd (8.65m shares) and Pak Elektron Ltd (8.11m shares).

Sectors that took away the highest number of points from the benchmark index included commercial banking (85.51 points), cement (81.55 points), technology and communication (71.36 points), oil and gas exploration (49.46 points) and fertiliser (27.24 points).

Shares contributing most negatively to the index included the Systems Ltd (65.12 points), Habib Bank Ltd (33.52 points), Meezan Bank Ltd (29.27 points), Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (24.62 points) and Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (21.62 points).

Stocks that contributed most positively to the index included Millat Tractors Ltd (31.2 points), Lotte Chemical Pakistan Ltd (16.35 points), Fauji Fertiliser Company Ltd (15.29 points), Dawood Hercules Corporation Ltd (12.77 points) and Unity Foods Ltd (8.28 points).

Shares that registered the largest declines in percentage terms were Mughal Iron and Industries Ltd (7.43pc), Pioneer Cement Ltd (6.65pc), Tariq Glass Industries Ltd (5.15pc), D.G. Khan Cement Ltd (4.59pc) and Attock Refinery Ltd (4.44pc).

Published in Dawn, May 7th, 2022