KARACHI: The shares market remained in the positive zone throughout the day on Thursday, thanks to the strengthening of the rupee against the dollar as well as the accumulation of value stocks by investors.

Arif Habib Ltd said pharmaceutical and technology sectors stayed in the limelight on the back of reports about a tax relief in the upcoming budget.

Another reason for the positive close was the news report about the likely conclusion of the International Monetary Fund staff-level agreement next week, according to Topline Securities.

The stock market is likely to remain volatile going forward, said JS Global, which also recommended that investors should take exposure to cement and textile sectors.

The KSE-100 index settled at 41,735.96 points, up 182.8 points or 0.44 per cent from a day ago.

The trading volume increased 55.7pc to 235.34 million shares while the traded value went up 22pc to $27.3m on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included TPL Properties Ltd (31.8m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (28.27m shares), Unity Foods Ltd (16.82m shares), Hascol Petroleum Ltd (14.35m shares) and Ghani Global Holdings Ltd (10.55m shares).

Sectors that contributed the highest number of points to the benchmark index included oil and gas exploration (44.5 points), technology and communication (32.29 points), power generation and distribution (29.87 points), pharmaceutical (29.23 points) and investment banking (23.11 points).

Shares contributing most positively to the index included Systems Ltd (25.72 points), Dawood Hercules Corporation Ltd (22.63 points), Pakistan Oilfields Ltd (22.24 points), the Hub Power Company Ltd (20.31 points) and United Bank Ltd (15.52 points).

Stocks that contributed most negatively to the index included Meezan Bank Ltd (11.66 points), Habib Bank Ltd (9.96 points), Bank AL Habib Ltd (9.63 points), Engro Fertilisers Ltd (6.65 points) and MCB Bank Ltd (6.57 points).

Foreign investors were net sellers as they offloaded shares worth $1.01m.

Published in Dawn,June 10th, 2022