KARACHI: The stock market witnessed a range-bound session on Tuesday after the benchmark index opened in the positive zone.

Arif Habib Ltd said investors opted to book profits, which led the index to close in the negative territory. The refining and exploration and production sectors remained in the limelight owing to the announcements of corporate results.

A key dampener was the hike in the local price of petrol along with an increase in the electricity tariffs, according to analyst Ahsan Mehanti. Dismal data of remittances, which fell 7.8 per cent in July, and public debt, which rose 23.5pc in 2021-22, also played a role in suppressing share prices.

Investors’ participation remained healthy whereas hefty volumes were observed in third-tier stocks, the brokerage added.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 43,436.48 points, down 185.34 points or 0.42pc from a day ago.

The trading volume decreased 4.3pc to 518 million shares while the traded value went down 3.7pc to $75.8m on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Cnergyico PK Ltd (44.62m shares), Fauji Foods Ltd (38.02m shares), Unity Foods Ltd (32.88m shares), Pakistan Refinery Ltd (29.36m shares) and Hascol Petroleum Ltd (16.14m shares).

Sectors contributing to the index performance included “miscellaneous” (-58.1 points), technology (-52.2 points), exploration and production (-25.3 points), automobile assembling (-24 points) and oil marketing (-21.3 points).

Top advancers in percentage terms were Dewan Textile Mills Ltd (28.28pc), Hascol Petroleum Ltd (16.95pc), Grays Leasing Ltd (16.67pc), Unicap Modaraba Ltd (9.84pc) and Dandot Cement Company Ltd (9.59pc).

Top decliners in percentage terms were B.F. Modaraba (16.13pc), First Tri-Star Modaraba (11.36pc), First Credit and Investment Bank Ltd (11.29pc), J.A. Textile Mills Ltd (10.38pc) and Escorts Investment Bank Ltd (9.70pc).

Foreign investors were net sellers as they offloaded shares worth $0.27m.

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2022