KARACHI: The stock market closed on the lower side on Monday after recording range-bound trading for the third consecutive session.

Analysts cited the rapidly rising electricity cost along with higher tax rates for the corporate sector under the International Monetary Fund programme as reasons for the drop in share prices.

Arif Habib Ltd called the dip short term in nature while noting that the decline should now be concluding with the upside likely to resume above the 44,500-point level.

The brokerage said the benchmark index of the stock market should be headed for the 47,000-point level as investors celebrate an end to an economic crisis induced by the imbalance in external payments and receipts.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 45,042.61 points, down 25.37 points or 0.06 per cent from the preceding session.

The overall trading volume increased 17.7pc to 314.7 million shares. The traded value went down 0.2pc to Rs6.7bn on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included the Bank of Punjab Ltd (49.1m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (45.8m shares), Telecard Ltd (18.6m shares), Fauji Foods Ltd (11.1m shares) and Pakistan Refinery Ltd (8.9m shares).

Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Unilever Pakistan Foods Ltd (Rs500), Colgate-Palmolive Pakistan Ltd (Rs107.81), Sanofi-Aventis Pakistan Ltd (Rs15), Jubilee Life Insurance Company Ltd (Rs8.48) and Abbott Laboratories Pakistan Ltd (Rs7.83).

Companies that recorded the biggest declines in their share prices in absolute terms were Rafhan Maize Products Company Ltd (Rs468), Mehmood Textile Mills Ltd (Rs16.60), Shield Corporation Ltd (Rs16.39), Siemens Pakistan Engineering Ltd (Rs15) and Archroma Pakistan Ltd (Rs10).

Foreign investors were net buyers as they purchased shares worth $0.61m.

Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2023