KARACHI: Share prices came under pressure on Friday because of rising political wrangling in Punjab where the chief minister formally asked the provincial governor to dissolve the legislature.

The tussle hurt sentiments of the investors who now expect the political move will be repeated in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to increase pressure on the collation government at the federal level for early general elections, according to Topline Securities.

Participation from investors remained muted as growing uncertainty on the political front kept them on the sidelines. Hascol Petroleum Ltd posted a high trading volume because of its “other than financial result” board meeting scheduled for Monday.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 40,323.45 points, down 480.44 points or 1.18 per cent from the preceding session.

The overall trading volume decreased 1.2 per cent to 173.3 million shares. The traded value went down 21.5pc to $20.3m on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Hascol Petroleum Ltd (25.1m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (21.4m shares), Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (12.9m shares), Summit Bank Ltd (9.7m shares) and Cnergyico PK Ltd (7.5m shares).

Sectors contributing the most to the index performance were exploration and production (-171.6 points), commercial banking (-46.3 points), technology and communication (-45.8 points), cement (-43.7 points) and oil marketing (-42.5 points).

Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were the Thal Industries Corporation Ltd (Rs16.66), Suraj Cotton Mills Ltd (Rs10.71), Gillett Pakistan Ltd (Rs8.89), Al-Abbas Sugar Mills Ltd (Rs8.09) and Murree Brewery Company Ltd (Rs6.80).

Companies that recor­d­ed the biggest declines in their share prices in absolute terms were Rafhan Maize Products Company Ltd (Rs511.03), Nestle Pakistan Ltd (Rs200), Sanofi-Aventis Pakistan Ltd (Rs71.68), Siemens Pakistan Engineering Ltd (Rs30) and Pakistan Engineering Company Ltd (Rs24.80).

Foreign investors were net buyers as they purchased shares worth $0.32m.

Published in Dawn, January 14th, 2023

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