KARACHI: Share prices went up on Monday as investors expected the signing of a staff-level agreement between the government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Arif Habib Ltd said the representative index of the Pakistan Stock Exchange shot up to an intraday high of 497.9 points after the finance minister hinted at the conclusion of the agreement on either Monday or Tuesday.

Investors remained optimistic throughout the trading session while healthy volumes were witnessed across the mainboard stocks with companies belonging to the exploration and production sector hogging the spotlight.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 41,856.85 points, up 62.98 points or 0.15 per cent from the preceding session.

The overall trading volume increased 6.1pc to 289.3 million shares. The traded value went up 51.2pc to $36.5m on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Hascol Petr­oleum Ltd (42.4m shares), Telecard Ltd (25.8m sha­res), Oil and Gas Devel­opment Company Ltd (18.4m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (16.5m shares) and TPL Properties Ltd (12.5m shares).

Sectors contributing the most to the index performance were exploration and production (208.1 points), oil marketing (24 points), fertiliser (14.9 points), paper and board (4.3 points) and textile composite (1.6 points).

Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Reliance Cotton Spinning Mills Ltd (Rs48.24), Ismail Industries Ltd (Rs34.50), Sitara Chemical Industries Ltd (Rs16.88), the Thal Industries Corporation Ltd (Rs14.55) and Mari Petroleum Company Ltd (Rs14.47).

Companies that reco­rded the biggest declines in their share prices in absolute terms were Raf­han Maize Products Com­pany Ltd (Rs249), Pakistan Services Ltd (Rs140.69), Nestle Pakistan Ltd (Rs140), Gatron Industries Ltd (Rs26.22) and Murree Brewery Company Ltd (Rs18.20).

Foreign investors were net sellers as they offloaded shares worth $0.49m.

Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2023