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KARACHI: Share prices rose on Tuesday as investors gained confidence after the country’s trade deficit declined significantly.
Arif Habib Ltd said the stock market opened in the green zone and traded favourably throughout the trading session. The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics reported the country’s trade deficit decreased 31 per cent year-on-year in September while the drop was 20pc on a monthly basis.
Moreover, the rupee continued to gain against the dollar and closed at 225.64, up 0.73pc on a day-on-day basis. The rupee has appreciated 6.08pc the last eight consecutive sessions.
The trading volume was dominated by Worldcall Telecom Ltd after it announced that its parent firm is concluding arrangements for a NASDAQ listing in the United States, the brokerage said.
As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 41,350.43 points, up 138.73 points or 0.34pc from the preceding session.
The trading volume increased 220pc to 593.4 million shares while the traded value went up 0.4pc to $41.4m on a day-on-day basis.
Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included WorldCall Telecom Ltd (346m shares), Flying Cement Ltd (30.37m shares), K-Electric Ltd (19.37m shares), G3 Technologies Ltd (19.29m shares) and TPL Properties Ltd (16.61m shares).
Sectors that contributed to the index performance were technology (73.9.2 points), power (53.6 points), cement (47.5 points), miscellaneous (28.3 points) and fertiliser (20.2 points).
Companies registering the biggest increase in their share prices in absolute terms were Pakistan Services Ltd (Rs56.50), Sapphire Fibres Ltd (Rs56), Mehmood Textile Mills Ltd (Rs54), Siemens Pakistan Engineering Ltd (Rs42.95) and Reliance Cotton Spinning Mills Ltd (Rs27.67).
Shares that declined the most in rupee terms were Premium Textile Mills Ltd (Rs59.99), Blessed Textiles Ltd (Rs34.99), Faisal Spinning Mills Ltd (Rs23.89), Mari Petroleum Company Ltd (Rs17.01) and Gadoon Textile Mills Ltd (Rs8.91).
Foreign investors remained net buyers as they purchased shares worth $0.82m.
Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2022
