KARACHI: Share pri­ces settled on the lower side after hovering within a short range throughout the trading session on Wednesday.

Arif Habib Ltd said the benchmark of representative shares traded in the green initially but moved both ways later on because of political noise as well as recent developments on the front of the International Monetary Fund programme.

Stocks dipped in the final trading hour as investors chose to book profits. Volumes remained strong across the board, with third-tier equities dominating the volume board.

A downtrend in the currency market also contributed to the negative sentiments on the national bourse.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 41,833.66 points, down 172.59 points or 0.41 per cent from the preceding session.

The overall trading volume decreased 36pc to 125.5 million shares. The traded value went down 69.8pc to $12.4m on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included World­Call Telecom Ltd (18.4m shares), Fauji Foods Ltd (8.4m shares), Hum Network Ltd (6m shares), Balochistan Glass Ltd (3.9m shares) and Lotte Chemical Pakistan Ltd (3.5m shares).

Sectors contributing the most to the index performance were exploration and production (-90.1 points), commercial banking (-35.1 points), investment banking (-34.1 points), technology and communication (-33.7 points) and cement (-27.6 points).

Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Nestle Pakistan Ltd (Rs150.01), Rafhan Maize Products Company Ltd (Rs149.99), Premium Textile Mills Ltd (Rs33.12), Blessed Textiles Ltd (Rs26.20) and Service Industries Ltd (Rs18.39).

Companies that recor­ded the biggest declines in their share prices in absolute terms were Sapphire Fibres Ltd (Rs86.92), Bhanero Textile Mills Ltd (Rs78.58), Bata Pakistan Ltd (Rs24.99), Pakistan Oilfields Ltd (Rs8.89) and Mari Petroleum Company Ltd (Rs7.28).

Foreign investors were net sellers as they offlo­aded shares worth $0.09m.

Published in Dawn, May 18th, 2023