KARACHI: The stock market witnessed another range-bound trading session on Thursday, with the benchmark index oscillating between 44,447 points and 44,109 points.

The stock market opened in the green zone on the back of the news that Washington praised Pakistan’s efforts to help Afghanistan overcome the ongoing humanitarian crisis by holding a summit of Muslim countries.

Moreover, the auction of Pakistan Investment Bonds a day ago in which the yields on instruments of different tenors remained mostly flat amidst heavy participation also helped the market consolidate at the current level, said Topline Securities.

As a result, the KSE-100 index added 91.94 points or 0.2 per cent to close at 44,266.91 points.

Market participation increased 58.4 per cent to 240.43 million shares while the value of traded shares also went up 22.41pc to Rs8.02 billion.

Sectors contributing the highest number of points to the benchmark index included technology and communication (69.31 points), investment banking (12.29 points), cement (11.57 points), power generation and distribution (4.91 points) and food and personal care (4.73 points).

Stocks that contributed significantly to the traded volume included Hum Network Ltd (48.71 million shares), TRG Pakistan Ltd (19.92m shares), Unity Foods Ltd (17.7m shares), Summit Bank (16.03m shares) and WorldCall Telecom Ltd (9.92m shares).Shares contributing positively to the index were TRG Pakistan Ltd (76.53 points), United Bank Ltd (13.04 points), Dawood Hercules Ltd (6.85 points), Habib Metropolitan Bank Ltd (6.85 points) and Unity Foods Ltd (6.50 points).

Stocks that took away the maximum number of points from the index included Systems Ltd (12.69 points), Habib Bank Ltd (11.54 points), MCB Bank Ltd (10.34 points), Fauji Fertiliser Company Ltd (7.11 points) and Meezan Bank Ltd (7.09 points).

Stocks recording the biggest increases in percentage terms included TRG Pakistan Ltd, which went up 5.80pc, followed by Jahangir Siddiqui and Company Ltd (4.71pc), EFU General Insurance Ltd (2.94pc), Feroze1888 Mills Ltd (2.21pc) and Unity Foods Ltd (1.99pc).

Published in Dawn, December 24th, 2021