KARACHI: The stock market suffered a bearish session on Monday as the dollar continued its upward flight against the rupee.

The local currency lost 0.58 per cent against the greenback on the first day of the week to close at 209.96 in the interbank market.

According to Arif Habib Ltd, investors’ participation remained lacklustre owing to concerns over the resumption of the International Monetary Fund loan programme. Volumes were thin on the main board whereas hefty trading took place in third-tier stocks.

JS Global said investors should stay cautious at the current level of the index and consider it a buying opportunity in blue-chip stocks.

The KSE-100 index settled at 41,776.98 points, down 363.78 points or 0.86pc from a day ago.

The trading volume decreased 42.7pc to 162.1 million shares while the traded value went down 45.8pc to $23.4m on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included TPL Properties Ltd (19.49m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (15.35m shares), Pakistan Refinery Ltd (11.82m shares), Cnergyico PK Ltd (11.14m shares) and Unity Foods Ltd (7.11m shares).

Sectors that took away the highest number of points from the benchmark index included cement (70.64 points), technology and communication (62.71 points), power generation and distribution (50.68 points), commercial banking (37.04 points) and oil and gas exploration (32.93 points).

Shares contributing most negatively to the index included the Hub Power Company Ltd (45.03 points), Systems Ltd (31.76 points), Lucky Cement Ltd (30.15 points), TRG Pakistan Ltd (26.59 points) and Bank AL Habib Ltd (15.45 points).

Stocks that contributed most positively to the index included United Bank Ltd (17.49 points), Millat Tractors Ltd (12.04 points), Packages Ltd (6.28 points), IGI Holdings Ltd (5.73 points) and Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Ltd (5.46 points).

Foreign investors were net sellers as they offloaded shares worth $1.1m.

Published in Dawn,June 21st, 2022