KARACHI: Shares rose slightly on Thursday as investors expected a breakthrough on the circular debt issue.

Topline Securities said the confirmation of the foreign exchange inflows from friendly countries and the announcement of a donor conference scheduled for Jan 9 also helped improve sentiments.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said a day ago the country would soon receive financial help of $3 billion from Saudi Arabia along with a refinancing facility of $1.2bn from China.

According to Arif Habib Ltd, share prices oscillated within a small range throu­ghout the trading session while political and economic uncertainty kept the trading volume on the lower side.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 40,716.74 points, up 177.44 points or 0.44 per cent from the preceding session.

The overall trading volume decreased 21.8pc to 111.8 million shares. The traded value went down 28.6pc to $13.6m on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included K-Electric Ltd (18.6m shares), Cnergyico PK Ltd (8.5m shares), BankIslami Pakistan Ltd (7.3m shares), Sui Northern Pipelines Ltd (5.7m shares) and WorldCall Telecom Ltd (5.4m shares).

Sectors contributing the most to the index performance were fertiliser (68.9 points), miscellaneous (55.9 points), exploration and production (54.4 points), technology and communication (31.7 points) and investment banking (8.6 points).

Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Pakistan Services Ltd (Rs108.79), Bhanero Textile Mills Ltd (Rs72), Sanofi-Aventis Pakistan Ltd (Rs44.40), Shield Corporation Ltd (Rs18.27) and Sunrays Textile Mills Ltd (Rs9.26).

Companies that recorded the biggest declines in their share prices in absolute terms were Rafhan Maize Products Company Ltd (Rs250), Nestle Pakistan Ltd (Rs140), Bata Pakistan Ltd (Rs58), Indus Motor Company Ltd (Rs36.53) and Atlas Honda Ltd (Rs17.70).

Foreign investors were net buyers as they purchased shares worth $0.3m.

Published in Dawn, january 6th, 2023