KARACHI: The stock market turned in another depressed performance on Friday amid renewed US concerns over polls irregularities as a result the KSE 100-share index extended overnight losses on persisting selling pressure.

Ashan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said the market maintained a bearish outlook on investor concerns over the Special Investment Facilitation Council’s decision for tough economic measures for structural reforms and the impact of IMF condition for imposition of the 18 per cent general sales tax on petroleum products.

He said the likely surge in industrial power tariff and resurgence in the cut-off yields on treasury bills also helped bears tighten their grip on the stock market.

Topline Securities Ltd said the equities market witnessed a range-bound session as the index traded between its intraday high of 167 points and low of 361 points.

Major positive contributions to the index came from the National Bank of Pakistan, Pakistan Services Ltd, Meezan Bank Ltd, TRG Pakistan and Systems Ltd cumulatively contributing 83 points.

On the other side, Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd, United Bank Ltd, Habib Bank Ltd, Hub Power Company and PTCL lost value weighing down on the index by 179 points.

As a result, the KSE-100 index closed at 65,151.83 points after shedding 265.57 points or 0.41 per cent from the preceding session.

The overall trading volume tumbled 46.51pc to 208.40 million shares. The traded value also plunged 36.76pc to Rs7.14bn on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Pak Re­­insurance Ltd (24.16m shares), Pakistan Inter­nation Airlines (16.54m shares), Pakistan Telec­ommunication Company Ltd (10.93m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (10.30m shares) and Agritech Ltd (10.14m shares).

Shares registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Rafhan Maize Products Company Ltd (Rs175.00), Hoechst Pak­istan (Rs93.87), Sapphire Fibres (Rs55.61), Pakistan Engineering Comp­any

Ltd (Rs41.01) and Pakistan Services Ltd (Rs27.89).

Companies registering the biggest decreases in their share prices in absolute terms were Nestle Paki­stan(­Rs310.00), Sapphire Textile Mills Ltd(Rs75.00), Lucky Core Industries

Ltd (Rs19.30), Shield Corporation (Rs17.45) and Mehmood Textile Mills Ltd (Rs10.50).

Foreign investors remain­­ed net buyers as they purchased shares worth $1.51m.

Published in Dawn, March 23rd, 2024