KARACHI: Share prices moved within a short range on Thursday owing to the ongoing political instability.
Arif Habib Ltd said the stock market opened in the negative zone but stocks later fluctuated both ways. The benchmark of representative shares reached an intraday high of 206.72 points and finished in the green territory as investors showed optimism about the disbursement of the ninth tranche of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan.
According to Topline Securities, investors resorted to value-hunting across the board, a move that helped the index close at a higher level. The finance minister also gave a go-ahead to philanthropists to raise dollars from overseas Pakistanis for overcoming the liquidity shortage.
As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 40,733.51points, up 113.56 points or 0.28 per cent from the preceding session.
The overall trading volume decreased 5.3pc to 124.1 million shares. The traded value went up 3.2pc to $22.69m on a day-on-day basis.
Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included WorldCall Telecom Ltd (20.6m shares), Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (12.3m shares), Dewan Motor Ltd (6.2m shares), Ghani Global Holdings Ltd (5.5m shares) and Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (5.1m shares).
Sectors contributing the most to the index performance were fertiliser (49.1 points), power generation and distribution (33.1 points), technology and communication (32.6 points), cement (31.7 points) and pharmaceutical (19.9 points).
Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Nestle Pakistan Ltd (Rs94.99), Mari Petroleum Company Ltd (Rs32.63), the Premier Sugar Mills Ltd (Rs30), Lucky Cement Ltd (Rs11.70) and JDW Sugar Mills Ltd (Rs11.31).
Companies that recorded the biggest declines in their share prices in absolute terms were Pakistan Services Ltd (Rs157.13), Siemens Pakistan Engineering Ltd (Rs47.64), Premium Textile Mills Ltd (Rs39.95), Reliance Cotton Spinning Mills Ltd (Rs21) and Colgate-Palmolive Pakistan Ltd (Rs19.67).
Foreign investors were net buying as they purchased shares worth $0.87m.
Published in Dawn, February 3rd, 2023
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