KARACHI: The stock market witnessed another range-bound session on Thursday as concerns over the rupee’s devaluation against the dollar kept investors on the sidelines, according to Arif Habib Ltd.

The local currency depreciated 0.81 per cent on a day-on-day basis to touch the psychological barrier of 200 in the interbank market.

The movement in the KSE-100 index remained subdued because investors awaited clarity on the resumption of the loan programme with the International Monetary Fund. Activity on the main board remained dull, although hefty volumes were observed in third-tier stocks, it said.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 42,983.45 points, down 43.43 points or 0.1pc from a day ago.

The trading volume decreased 32.9 per cent to 187.1 million shares while the traded value went down 26.4pc to $25.4m on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Ghani Global Holdings Ltd (15.09m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (13.38m shares), Silkbank Ltd (13.09m shares), Telecard Ltd (9.59m shares) and Cnergyico PK Ltd (7.51m shares).

Sectors that took away the highest number of points from the benchmark index included oil and gas exploration (39.49 points), cement (17.27 points), commercial banking (14.57 points), investment banking (9.64 points) and technology and communication (8.45 points).

Shares contributing most negatively to the index included Habib Bank Ltd (13.65 points), Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (13.26 points), Mari Petroleum Company Ltd (12.24 points), Pakistan Oilfields Ltd (10.74 points) and Lucky Cement Ltd (10.65 points).

Stocks that contributed most positively to the index included Engro Polymer and Chemicals Ltd (26.01 points), Engro Corporation Ltd (15.06 points), Engro Fertilisers Ltd (13.3 points), Fauji Fertiliser Company Ltd (12.85 points) and the Hub Power Company Ltd (8.56 points).

Stocks that registered the largest declines in percentage terms were Service Industries Ltd (3.73pc), Unity Foods Ltd (3.03pc), Pak Elektron Ltd (2.56pc), Avanceon Ltd (2.37pc) and Pioneer Cement Ltd (2.32pc).

Foreign investors were net sellers as they offloaded shares worth $0.38m.

Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2022