KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange remained under pressure throughout the trading session on Wednesday on the back of an uncertain economic situation, said Arif Habib Ltd.

The investment patterns remained sideways as the rupee continued its free fall against the dollar. It depreciated 1.31 per cent on Monday to close at 236.02 against the dollar.

But the assurance by the finance minister on inflows from the International Monetary Fund and a current account surplus in July helped stocks show some recovery, according to Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation.

Reports of surging textile exports and higher global crude oil prices also played the role of a catalyst in bringing the benchmark to a positive close, he added.

AKD Securities said domestic issues like elections, inflation and interest rate will likely keep the PSX under pressure. It advised its clients to adopt a “cautious approach” going forward.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 39,972.64 points, up 78.59 points or 0.2pc from a day ago.

The trading volume decreased 7.6pc to 121.6 million shares while the traded value went down 1.3pc to $17.6m on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Lotte Chemical Pakistan Ltd (10.21m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (9.26m shares), TPL Properties Ltd (9.01m shares), Cnergyico PK Ltd (7.16m shares) and Unity Foods Ltd (3.85m shares).

Sectors contributing to the index performance included banking (76.9 points), chemical (54.2 points), technology (27.5 points), engineering (14.4 points) and cement (10.1 points).

Stocks that contributed most positively to the index were Engro Polymer and Chemicals Ltd (39.03), Systems Ltd (24.24), Bank Alfalah Ltd (16.02), Meezan Bank Ltd (14.48) and Lotte Chemical Pakistan Ltd (14.33).

Shares that took away the highest number of points from the index were Engro Fertilisers Ltd (24.73), Engro Corporation Ltd (21.68), Indus Motor Company Ltd (18.89), the Hub Power Company Ltd (13.75) and Millat Tractors Ltd (6.21).

Foreign investors were net sellers as they offloaded shares worth $0.9m.

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2022