KARACHI: Trading on the stock exchange began on a positive note as share prices rose shortly after the opening bell on Monday.

Arif Habib Ltd said the optimism was because of the expectations regarding the government reaching a staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) this week.

The positive trigger propelled the benchmark index of representative shares to an intraday high of 460.71 points. Investors also gained confidence after the rupee gathered strength against the dollar on the news about the rollover of a $1.3 billion loan from a Chinese bank.

Investors continued to participate actively throughout the day with healthy volumes registering across the board.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 41,434.33 points, up 97.33 points or 0.24 per cent from the preceding session.

The overall trading volume increased 13.7 per cent to 221.6 million shares. The traded value went down 6.5pc to $26.1m on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included WorldCall Telecom Ltd (42m shares), Telecard Ltd (18m shares), TPL Properties Ltd (10.6m shares), Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (8.7m shares) and Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (8m shares).

Sectors contributing the most to the index performance were miscellaneous (61.5 points), cement (37.4 points), exploration and production (35.6 points), technology and communication (31.6 points) and pharmaceutical (9.4 points).

Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Pakistan Services Ltd (Rs117), Bata Pakistan Ltd (Rs50), Ismail Industries Ltd (Rs31.91), Abbott Laboratories Ltd (Rs26.50) and Blessed Textiles Ltd (Rs14.99).

Companies that recorded the biggest declines in their share prices in absolute terms were Rafhan Maize Products Company Ltd (Rs499.99), Nestle Pakistan Ltd (Rs133.97), Premium Textile Mills Ltd (Rs40.23), Colgate-Palmolive Pakistan Ltd (Rs30.23) and Sapphire Fibres Ltd (Rs27.68).

Foreign investors were net sellers as they offloaded shares worth $1.3m.

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2023