KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange observed yet another range-bound session on Wednesday owing to the continuous depreciation of the local currency against the dollar.

The benchmark index opened in the positive zone but failed to continue its momentum as investors’ participation remained sluggish, according to Arif Habib Ltd. The rupee depreciated 0.9 per cent day-on-day to close at 223.42 against the greenback in the interbank market.

Reuters reported the dollar rose to a 24-year high against the yen and a 37-year high versus the sterling as Japan’s dovish monetary policy and Europe’s economic problems contrasted with a relatively stronger US economy and a hawkish Federal Reserve determined to bring down inflation to its 2pc inflation target.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 41,766.05 points, down 94.31 points or 0.23pc from a day ago.

The trading volume decreased 50.4pc to 92.9 million shares while the traded value went down 21.4pc to $14.1m on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Hascol Petroleum Ltd (8.62m shares), Pakistan Refinery Ltd (6.24m shares), Cnergyico PK Ltd (4.82m shares), Unity Foods Ltd (3.93m shares) and TPL Properties Ltd (3.88m shares).

Sectors that contributed positively to the index performance were fertiliser (-32.8 points), banking (-21.3 points), technology (-17.5 points), cement (-16.8 points) and exploration and production (-16.3 points).

Companies registering the biggest increase in their share prices in absolute terms were Premium Textile Mills Ltd (Rs48.90), Colgate-Palmolive Pakistan Ltd (Rs48.67), Siemens Pakistan Engineering Ltd (Rs35), Gatron Industries Ltd (Rs24.69) and The Thal Industries Corporation Ltd (Rs18.06).

Shares that declined the most in rupee terms were Sapphire Textile Mills Ltd (Rs79.05), Reliance Cotton Spinning Mills Ltd (Rs35), Suraj Cotton Mills Ltd (Rs11), Bata Pakistan Ltd (Rs10) and IGI Holdings Ltd (Rs6.11).

Foreign investors remain­­ed net buyers as they off­loaded shares worth $0.13m.

Published in Dawn, September 8th, 2022