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KARACHI: Stocks extended their overnight gains on Wednesday as the benchmark index of representative shares traded on the higher side throughout the session.
Arif Habib Ltd said the upswing was because of the expected signing of a staff-level agreement between the government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the ninth tranche of the $7 billion Extended Fund Facility.
Volumes increased dramatically after banking and cement companies announced “extraordinary” earnings for the October-December.
“Investors should avail any downside as an opportunity to buy in cement, technology and exploration and production sectors,” said JS Global.
As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 41,167.60 points, up 217.76 points or 0.53 per cent from the preceding session.
The overall trading volume increased 103.7pc to 196.5 million shares. The traded value went up 39.6pc to $24.5m on a day-on-day basis.
Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included WorldCall Telecom Ltd (44.2m shares), Maple Leaf Cement Factory Ltd (22.4m shares), Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (10.4m shares), TPL Properties Ltd (10.3m shares) and the Bank of Punjab Ltd (6.6m shares).
Sectors contributing the most to the index performance were commercial banking (123.5 points), cement (66 points), power generation and distribution (53.4 points), tobacco (12.9 points) and investment banking (11.8 points).
Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Sapphire Fibres Ltd (Rs71.77), Reliance Cotton Spinning Mills Ltd (Rs45), Pakistan Tobacco Company Ltd (Rs39), Premium Textile Mills Ltd (Rs32.57) and Blessed Textiles Ltd (Rs26.32).
Companies that recorded the biggest declines in their share prices in absolute terms were Sapphire Textile Mills Ltd (Rs88.49), Nestle Pakistan Ltd (Rs85), Ismail Industries Ltd (Rs40.90), Pakistan Services Ltd (Rs32.48) and Abbott Laboratories Ltd (Rs11.91).
Foreign investors were net sellers as they offloaded shares worth $0.1m.
Published in Dawn, February 23th, 2023
