KARACHI: The stock market remained quiet for most of the day as investors avoided the pre-budget rally that is the yearly feature. The KSE-100 index settled for the weekend at 48,305 points after a nominal gain of 53.23 points, or 0.11 per cent.

The benchmark moved rangebound between the intraday high and low by 280 and 9 points. Traders said that the market players were waiting impatiently for the budget after their pre-budget buying on Thursday that had carried the index up by 0.99pc.

Among participants, individuals erred on the side of caution and decided to take profit at the high levels, lest the budget derails the market. Individuals sold shares valued at $12.52m. Foreign investors also decided to wait until the next week to build portfolio. Companies, mutual funds, and brokers proprietary trading accumulated scrips on sectors anticipated to be the likely budget beneficiaries.

Analyst Nabeel Haroon said that the KSE 100 index continuing its momentum from previous day gains to make an intraday high of 280 points on the back of expectation that government would announce a popular budget later on Friday. “However, profit-taking was observed during late trading, as sceptical investors came in to book their profit before the budget announcement,” he said.

Major contribution to the index came from FFC, EFERT, MTL, HMB and OGDC, as they cumulatively contributed 75 points to the index.

The trading volume and value for the day stood at 1bn shares and Rs24.88bn respectively. WorldCall Telecom was the day’s volume leader with 121m shares changing hands.

Other market watchers said that the market had already digested the positive news of remittances by overseas Pakistanis increasing by 34pc year-on-year to $2.5bn in May and IPPs receipt of first tranche (Rs89bn) of payments.

Analyst Ahsan Mehanti said that the stocks closed higher led by selected scrips across the board as investor weighed IMF relaxations in the federal budget FY22.

Published in Dawn, June 12th, 2021