KARACHI: The stock market traded in the green zone on Friday, thanks to index heavyweight fertiliser shares that rose on an increase in retail prices.

Arif Habib Ltd said investors hunted for value buying throughout the session, even though the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics reported the annual consumer price index for June increased 21.32 per cent year-on-year. This took the 2021-22 average inflation to 12.09pc versus 8.9pc in the preceding fiscal year.

Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said a stronger rupee, surging foreign exchange reserves on China inflows and the achievement of the revenue target of over Rs6.1 trillion played the role of a catalyst in the bullish close.

The KSE-100 index settled at 41,630.35 points, up 89.52 points or 0.22pc from a day ago.

The trading volume decreased 20.1pc to 154 million shares while the traded value went down 40.6pc to $19.7m on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Agritech Ltd (19.75m shares), Azgard Nine Ltd (9.11m shares), G3 Technologies Ltd (8.71m shares), TPL Properties Ltd (7.98m shares) and Hum Network Ltd (7.31m shares).

Sectors that contributed the highest number of points to the benchmark index included commercial banking (94.48 points), fertiliser (49.96 points), oil and gas marketing (13.02 points), textile composite (6.07 points) and real estate investment trust (2.66 points).

Shares contributing most positively to the index included Bank AL Habib Ltd (32.17 points), Engro Fertilisers Ltd (31.29 points), Fauji Fertiliser Company Ltd (31.16 points), MCB Bank Ltd (22.23 points) and Meezan Bank Ltd (20.06 points).

Stocks that contributed most negatively to the index included Lucky Cement Ltd (10.08 points), Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (10.06 points), K-Electric Ltd (9.03 points), Engro Corporation Ltd (8.37 points) and Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (8.23 points).

Foreign investors were net buyers as they purchased shares worth $0.46m.

Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2022