KARACHI: Shares traded in a range-bound manner on the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Friday amid political ambiguity.
Arif Habib Ltd said the rising political temperature caused the index to trade sideways throughout the first half of the trading session. The rupee’s continued devaluation against the dollar also discouraged investors from taking positions.
However, the index dropped by 343.4 points once the trading session resumed after the Friday prayer with the Election Commission of Pakistan announcing its decision to disqualify former prime minister Imran Khan.
Yet value buying took place in the last trading hour, which led the index to close in the green, the brokerage added.
As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 42,213.48 points, up 76.44 points or 0.18 per cent from the preceding session.
The trading volume increased 8.2pc to 289.6 million shares while the traded value went up 25.4pc to $35.6m on a day-on-day basis.
Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included WorldCall Telecom Ltd (30.6m shares), Pakistan Refinery Ltd (21m shares), Nishat Power Ltd (14.8m shares), Cnergyico PK Ltd (12.3m shares) and Dewan Cement Ltd (12.2m shares).
Sectors that contributed to the index performance were exploration and production (47.2 points), power generation and distribution (20.2 points), refinery (15.7 points), fertiliser (15.7 points) and food and personal care products (13.1 points).
Companies registering the biggest increase in their share prices in absolute terms were Rafhan Maize Products Company Ltd (Rs680), Gatron Industries Ltd (Rs27), Mari Petroleum Company Ltd (Rs23.63), Premium Textile Mills Ltd (Rs22.49) and Khyber Tobacco Company Ltd (Rs19.48).
Shares that declined the most in rupee terms were Sapphire Fibres Ltd (Rs82), Siemens Pakistan Engineering Ltd (Rs23.87), Colgate-Palmolive Pakistan Ltd (Rs17.69), Shield Corporation Ltd (Rs11.31) and Millat Tractors Ltd (Rs5.82).
Foreign investors remained net sellers as they offloaded shares worth $0.48m.
