KARACHI: The shares market came under a bearish spell on Thursday as investors opted for booking gains.
Topline Securities said trading began on a positive note as investors welcomed the announcement by Engro Corporation Ltd about a share buyback worth approximately Rs20 billion. However, the momentum didn’t last for long because of an increase in the interest rate by the US Federal Reserve.
According to Arif Habib Ltd, the benchmark of stock prices closed lower as mutual funds began selling their positions over the prevailing political clamour. The share buyback announcement increased volumes across the board even though third-tier stocks continued to dominate trading.
As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 41,179.76 points, down 557.86 points or 1.34 per cent from the preceding session.
The overall trading volume increased 67pc to 245 million shares. The traded value went up 94.5pc to $33.9m on a day-on-day basis.
Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Bank Alfalah Ltd (41.2m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (18.5m shares), K-Electric Ltd (10m shares), Dewan Farooque Motors Ltd (8.7m shares) and Hascol Petroleum Ltd (7.9m shares).
Sectors that contributed negatively to the index performance were commercial banking (180.4 points), exploration and production (106.1 points), technology and communication (66.5 points), power generation and distribution (57.3 points) and cement (37.4 points).
Companies registering the biggest increase in their share prices in absolute terms were Bhanero Textile Mills Ltd (Rs79.72), Pakistan Services Ltd (Rs70.83), Sanofi-Aventis Pakistan Ltd (Rs53.90), The Premier Sugar Mills Ltd (Rs20) and Suraj Cotton Mills Ltd (Rs7.99).
Companies that recorded the biggest declines in their share prices in absolute terms were Unilever Pakistan Foods Ltd (Rs1,000), Rafhan Maize Products Company Ltd (Rs360), Sapphire Textile Mills Ltd (Rs79.80), Ismail Industries Ltd (Rs32.99) and Mari Petroleum Company Ltd (Rs25.55).
Foreign investors were net sellers as they offloaded shares worth $4.14m.
Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2022
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