KARACHI: The benchmark for share prices oscillated within a small range on Friday before closing on the higher side owing to positive triggers on the macroeconomic front.

The pace of trading remained sluggish in the initial hours, but volumes picked up in the later part of the day, said Arif Habib Ltd.

A major driver for improved sentiments was the Supreme Court declaring the agreement for the development of the Reko Diq mine legal — a move that helped boost interest in the companies belonging to the energy exploration and production sector.

News reports that Saudi Arabia was about to finalise a support package also proved encouraging for the stock market.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 41,698.28 points, up 46.67 points or 0.1 per cent from the preceding session.

The overall trading volume decreased 16pc to 191.4 million shares. The traded value went down 11.7pc to $16m on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included WorldCall Telecom Ltd (19.6m shares), Media Times Ltd (15m shares), Dewan Farooque Spinning Mills Ltd (13m shares), Hum Network Ltd (11.4m shares) and Ghani Global Glass Ltd (7.5m shares).

Sectors that contributed to the index performance were exploration and production (39.5 points), commercial banking (36.7 points), engineering (9.3 points), food and personal care products (5.6 points) and technology and communication (4.1 points).

Companies registering the biggest increase in their share prices in absolute terms were Khyber Tobacco Company Ltd (Rs15.97), Murree Brewery Company Ltd (Rs15.49), Mari Petroleum Company Ltd (Rs10.88), Colgate-Palmolive Pakistan Ltd (Rs10) and Sapphire Fibres Ltd (Rs6).

Companies that recorded the biggest declines in their share prices in absolute terms were Reliance Cotton Spinning Mills Ltd (Rs45.04), Premium Textile Mills Ltd (Rs39.10), Shield Corpo­ration Ltd (Rs21.36), Bhanero Textile Mills Ltd (Rs10.86) and Jubilee Life Insurance Company Ltd (Rs8.28).

Foreign investors were net sellers as they offloaded shares worth $8.36m.

Published in Dawn, December 10th, 2022