KARACHI: The stock market witnessed a mixed trading session on Wednesday as share prices opened on the lower side owing to the negative news flow.

Arif Habib Ltd said share prices moved in both directions afterwards while investors remained vigilant in view of the ongoing political uncertainty.

Their involvement stayed sluggish throughout the trading session with volumes drying up on the mainboard of the stock exchange.

Topline Securities said the initial negativity came from Systems Ltd, which announced lower-than-expected earnings for the fourth quarter of 2022.

However, share prices of heavyweights like Engro Corporation Ltd, MCB Bank Ltd, Dawood Hercules Corporation Ltd, Pakistan Oilfields Ltd and Frieslandcampina Engro Pakistan Ltd closed higher than their preceding close, cumulatively adding 104 points to the index.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 40,499.34 points, up 51.29 points or 0.13 per cent from the preceding session.

The overall trading volume increased 24.6pc to 84.2 million shares. The traded value went up 59.5pc to $12.8m on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Silkbank Ltd (6.4m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (5.1m shares), Engro Corporation Ltd (4.2m shares), Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (2.9m shares) and Balochistan Glass Ltd (2.8m shares).

Sectors contributing the most to the index performance were fertiliser (68.3 points), exploration and production (25.7 points), cement (13.8 points), chemical (11.4 points) and investment banking (9.6 points).

Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Khyber Textile Mills Ltd (Rs41.75), Premium Textile Mills Ltd (Rs29.56), Gatron Industries Ltd (Rs19.14), Lucky Core Industries Ltd (Rs18.40) and Fazal Cloth Mills Ltd (Rs9.94).

Companies that recorded the biggest declines in their share prices in absolute terms were Nestle Pakistan Ltd (Rs152.83), Unilever Pakistan Foods Ltd (Rs54), Bhanero Textile Mills Ltd (Rs48.14), Sanofi-Aventis Pakistan Ltd (Rs20) and Atlas Honda Ltd (Rs19.81).

Foreign investors were net sellers as they offloaded shares worth $0.52m.

Published in Dawn, April 20th, 2023