KARACHI: Amid consolidation of overnight gains, the stock market on Tuesday turned in a subdued performance as the KSE-100 index inched lower in mixed trading.

Topline Securities Ltd said the market initially extended the overnight buoyant momentum, tossing the index to an intraday high of 73,260, gaining 496 points. However, some investors opted to take profits at the day’s high level, which compelled the benchmark index to shed earlier gains and settle in the red.

The fertiliser, power, pharma, and cable sectors contributed positively, with Dawood Hercules, Hub Power, Kot Addu, Highnoon Laboratories, and Pakistan Elektron adding 286 points to the index. Conversely, Pakistan Petroleum Ltd, Engro Fertilisers and Oil and Gas Development Company came under selling pressure and collectively lost 158 points.

Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said the market closed flat amid higher trades on pre-budget uncertainty, following reports that the IMF is demanding Rs1.3 trillion in additional taxes in the upcoming budget.

He said political noise, uncertainty over the new IMF bailout programme conditions, and rupee instability contributed to bearish sentiments.

As a result, after hitting an intraday high of 73,260.09, the index closed flat at 72,761.20 points, showing a minor loss of 3.04 points from the preceding session.

The overall trading volume increased 7.51pc to 621.82 million shares. The traded value also rose 1.8pc to Rs24.97bn on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Pak Elektron Ltd (64.15m shares), Fauji Foods (40.14m shares), Worldcall Telecom Ltd (29.97m shares), Hum Network Ltd (27.02m shares) and K-Electric Ltd (23.74m shares).

The companies registering the most significant increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Unilever Pakistan Foods Ltd (Rs100.45), Hoechst Pak (Rs92.54), Ismail Industries (Rs50.13), Highnoon Lab (Rs41.12) and Sapphire Textile (Rs35.74).

The companies registering the major decreases in their share prices in absolute terms were Hallmark Company (Rs71.10), Mari Petroleum (Rs36.22), Nestle Pakistan (Rs30.00), Honda Atlas Cars (Rs22.64) and JDW Sugar Mills (Rs18.13).

Foreign investors remained net buyers as they picked shares worth $0.55m.

Published in Dawn, May 8th, 2024