KARACHI: The stock market snapped a four-session losing streak on Wednesday on selective buying in the early trade, but the news of handing over a 14-year jail term to former premier Imran Khan and his spouse Bushra Bibi in Toshakhana reference depressed investor sentiments who resorted to profit-taking as a result the benchmark KSE 100-share index underwent trimming of early gains.
Topline Securities Ltd said the stock market largely traded in a positive zone during the session as it made an intraday high of 758 points on cherry-picking.
Amid renewed selling due to rising political noise and security issues, investor participation declined as they preferred to keep to the sidelines before the upcoming general elections on Feb 8.
As a result, the KSE-100 index closed at 61,979.18 points after gaining 137.44 points or 0.22 per cent from the preceding session.
The overall trading volume plunged by 36.6pc to 276.46 million shares. The traded value also dipped by 39.34pc to Rs9.27bn on a day-on-day basis.
Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included K-Electric (36.27m shares), Bank of Punjab (20.85m shares), Hascol Petroleum Ltd (14.17m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (11.73m shares) and Soneri Bank Ltd (11.60m shares).
Shares registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Unilever Pakistan Foods Ltd (Rs1,551.83), Sazgar Engineering Ltd (Rs13.48), Mehmood Textile Mills Ltd (Rs11.80), Siemens (Pakistan) Ltd (Rs9.5) and Tri-Pack Films Ltd (Rs6.64).
Companies registering the biggest decreases in their share prices in absolute terms were Nestle Pakistan (Rs100.00), Colgate-Palmolive (Rs40.33), Philip Morris (Rs33.01), Mari Petroleum Ltd (Rs32.35) and Bhanero Textile Mills Ltd (Rs25.00).
Foreign investors remained net sellers as they offloaded shares worth $2.09m.
Published in Dawn, February 1st, 2024
