KARACHI: Stock prices inched up on Thursday as investors celebrated the news about the upcoming inflow of dollars under different heads from a range of sources.
Arif Habib Ltd said the benchmark index opened in the green zone and rose to the intraday high of 461.47 points before dropping a little for the remainder of the trading session. Investors booked profits in the final trading hour, which dragged the index down.
Volumes remained robust across the board as shares in cement and exploration and production sectors stayed in the limelight.
Topline Securities said investors took interest in cement shares in view of the declining international coal prices.
As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 40,803.89 points, up 45.69 points or 0.11 per cent from the preceding session.
The overall trading volume decreased 7.4pc to 175.4 million shares. The traded value went down 15.7pc to $25.8m on a day-on-day basis.
Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included WorldCall Telecom Ltd (12.6m shares), Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (9.8m shares), Al-Shaheer Corporation Ltd (8.9m shares), Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (8.1m shares) and Maple Leafe Cement Factory Ltd (8m shares).
Sectors contributing the most to the index performance were miscellaneous (72.7 points), cement (39 points), chemical (18.8 points), investment banking (16.9 points), and food and personal care products (15.7 points).
Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Nestle Pakistan Ltd (Rs249.90), Pakistan Services Ltd (Rs140), Premium Textile Mills Ltd (Rs42.08), Blessed Textiles Ltd (Rs26.25) and Reliance Cotton Spinning Mills Ltd (Rs25).
Companies that recorded the biggest declines in their share prices in absolute terms were Pakistan Engineering Company Ltd (Rs27.55), Shield Corporation Ltd (Rs20.42), Service Industries Ltd (Rs12.84), Al-Abbas Sugar Mills Ltd (Rs11.91) and Abbott Laboratories Ltd (Rs11.74).
Foreign investors were net sellers as they offloaded shares worth $0.58m.
Published in Dawn, January 13th, 2023
