KARACHI: Share prices moved within a short range on Friday as bulls and bears battled for control of the bourse throughout the session.

Arif Habib Ltd said the continuing political turmoil and a delay in the signing of a staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the revival of a $7 billion loan programme kept investors at bay.

However, fresh buying was seen across the board during the last trading hour, pushing the representative index of the Pakistan Stock Exchange into the green zone. Mainboard stocks recorded dull volumes while third-tier shares dominated the volume board.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 40,000.83 points, up 152.48 points or 0.38 per cent from the preceding session.

The overall trading volume increased 26.5pc to 112.2 million shares. The traded value went down 1.4pc to $13.9m on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Pakistan International Bulk Terminal Ltd (12.1m shares), Pak Elektron Ltd (6.5m shares), Hascol Petroleum Ltd (4.8m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (4.8m shares) and Pakgen Power Ltd (4.4m shares).

Sectors contributing the most to the index performance were commercial banking (39.4 points), cement (28.1 points), fertiliser (19.9 points), oil marketing (15.7 points) and power generation and distribution (13.4 points).

Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Bata Pakistan Ltd (Rs94.26), Nestle Pakistan Ltd (Rs40.10), Khyber Textile Mills Ltd (Rs29.80), Pakistan Tobacco Company Ltd (Rs23.87) and Pakistan Engineering Company Ltd (Rs22.70).

Companies that recorded the biggest declines in their share prices in absolute terms were Pakistan Services Ltd (Rs35.90), Philip Morris Pakistan Ltd (Rs34.57), Al-Ghazi Tractors Ltd (Rs21.95), Dawood Lawrencepur Ltd (Rs15.90) and Gatron Industries Ltd (Rs13.41).

Foreign investors were net sellers as they offloaded shares worth $0.19m.

Published in Dawn, April 1st, 2023