KARACHI: Stock prices observed a mixed trend on Tuesday as investors remained cautious on account of further delays in the signing of the staff-level agreement between the government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Arif Habib Ltd said the benchmark of representative shares stayed on the higher side initially. But then trading became choppy as uncertainty on the economic front as well as the unfolding political situation in Lahore crushed investors’ confidence, it added.

Trading volumes remai­ned healthy across the board as third-tier stocks stayed in the limelight.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 41,816.43 points, down 40.42 points or 0.10 per cent from the preceding session.

The overall trading volume decreased 32.1pc to 185.3 million shares. The traded value went down 0.6pc to $23.9m on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Hascol Petroleum Ltd (26.6m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (13.1m shares), Ghani Global Holdings Ltd (13m shares), Telecard Ltd (10.2m shares) and Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (8.6m shares).

Sectors contributing negatively to the index performance were food and personal care products (11.9 points), auto (5.7 points), chemical (5.0 points), cement (4.7 points) and banking (4.6 points).

Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Pakistan Services Ltd (Rs124.81), Sapphire Textile Mills Ltd (Rs37.91), Philip Morris Pakistan Ltd (Rs30), Sanofi-Aventis Pakistan Ltd (Rs19.50) and Gatron Industries Ltd (Rs14.17).

Companies that recorded the biggest declines in their share prices in absolute terms were Nestle Pakistan Ltd (Rs60), Sapphire Fibres Ltd (Rs58.30), Bata Pakistan Ltd (Rs35), Ismail Industries Ltd (Rs24.49) and JS Global Capital Ltd (Rs22).

Foreign investors were net sellers as they offloaded shares worth $1.26m.

Published in Dawn, March 15th, 2023