KARACHI: The stock market opened on a positive note with the KSE-100 index making an intraday high of 484 points or 1.1 per cent on Wednesday.

However, investors opted for profit-taking in the latter half of the trading session, which brought the benchmark down, said Topline Securities.

According to analyst Ahsan Mehanti, stocks closed flat on Moody’s assertion about a high liquidity risk despite a deal with the International Monetary Fund.

Dismal data showing petroleum sales fell 27pc in 2022-23 in addition to a hike in the power tariff for the industrial sector also played the role of a catalyst in the bearish close. Investors’ concerns over the stock of the circular debt reaching $2.64 trillion also served as a dampener.

Stocks belonging to oil marketing, banking, refinery and technology sectors contributed positively to the index.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 43,552.84 points, down 4.18 points or 0.71pc from the preceding session.

The overall trading volume decreased 16.2pc to 351.1 million shares.

The traded value went down 24.1pc to Rs15.8 billion on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Pakistan Refinery Ltd (27.3m shares), Cnergyico PK Ltd (20.4m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (16.7m shares), Pak Elektron Ltd (15.1m shares) and the Hub Power Company Ltd (11.4m shares).

Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Pakistan Services Ltd (Rs48.80), Khairpur Sugar Mills Ltd (Rs19.02), National Refinery Ltd (Rs13), Systems Ltd (Rs12.16) and Thal Ltd (Rs9.14).

Companies that recorded the biggest declines in their share prices in absolute terms were Sapphire Textile Mills Ltd (Rs49.50), Ibra­him Fibres Ltd (Rs20.49), Mehmood Textile Mills Ltd (Rs16.15), Dawood Lawr­­en­­ce­pur Ltd (Rs13.61) and Mari Petro­leum Company Ltd (Rs13.01).

Foreign investors were net buyers as they purchased shares worth $0.85m.

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2023