KARACHI: The approval by the International Mon­etary Fund’s (IMF) executive board for the $1.17 billion loan tranche led the stock market to open in the positive zone on Tuesday.

However, investors opted for profit-taking across the board in the later part of the trading session, said Arif Habib Ltd.

The statement by the IMF on the need for a tight monetary policy amid higher inflation coupled with concerns for weakening exports on a global recession and surging energy prices played the role of a catalyst in bearish activity, said analyst Ahsan Mehanti.

“Going forward, we recommend investors should avail any downside as an opportunity to buy exploration and production and banking stocks,” said JS Global.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 42,195.26 points, down 309.08 points or 0.73 per cent from its last close.

The trading volume increased 3.7pc to 237.7 million shares while the traded value went up 0.4pc to $33.2m on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included K-Electric Ltd (38.18m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (13.74m shares), Unity Foods Ltd (12.87m shares), Fauji Cement Ltd (11.21m shares) and Pakistan Refinery Ltd (10.94m shares).

Sectors contributing negatively to the index performance included banking (96 points), fertiliser (48.9 points), cement (34 points), exploration and production (31.8 points) and chemical (30.5 points).

Companies registering the biggest increase in their share prices in absolute terms were Sapphire Textile Mills Ltd (Rs75.82), Rafhan Maize Products Company Ltd (Rs50), Service Industries Ltd (Rs17.99), Atlas Battery Ltd (Rs14.14) and Nestle Pakistan Ltd (Rs9.97).

Shares that declined the most in rupee terms were Colgate-Palmolive Pakistan Ltd (Rs54.12), Indus Motor Company Ltd (Rs28.66), Pakistan Tobacco Company Ltd (Rs24), The Thal Industries Corporation Ltd (Rs17.82) and Archroma Pakistan Ltd (Rs15.60).

Foreign investors rema­ined net buyers as they purchased shares worth $0.12m.

Published in Dawn, August 31st, 2022