KARACHI: Trading on the Pakistan Stock Exchange remained volatile amid negative news flow on Thursday.

According to Topline Secu­rities, TRG Pakistan Ltd alone dragged the benchmark index down by 101.51 points and closed the day at its lower lock. Investors offloaded their shares in the technology company after a woman in the United States accused its CEO, Zia Chishti, of sexual assault.

Meanwhile, commercial banks continued to receive investors’ interest on the back of expectations about an interest rate hike in the monetary policy announcement due on Friday.

As a result, the KSE-100 index lost 83.92 points or 0.18 per cent to close at 46,110.50 points.

Market participation incre­ased 10.5pc to 263.55 million shares while the value of traded shares dropped 16.31pc to Rs10.12 billion.

Sectors taking away the highest number of points from the benchmark index included technology and communication (119.68 points), fertiliser (39.43 points), chemical (21.43 points), oil and gas exploration (12.78 points) and investment banking (10.19 points).

Stocks that contributed significantly to the traded volume included Merit Pack­aging Ltd (42.18m shares), Ghani Global Holdings Ltd (29.06m shares), Services Fabrics Ltd (17.73m shares), TPL Properties Ltd (12.34m shares) and Fauji Cement Company Ltd (10.45m shares).

Stocks that contributed positively to the index included Lucky Cement Ltd (45.87 points), Meezan Bank Ltd (38.38 points), MCB Bank Ltd (13.65 points), United Bank Ltd (11.14 points) and Habib Metropolitan Bank Ltd (10.95 points).

Shares that contributed negatively included TRG Pakistan Ltd (101.51 points), Engro Corporation Ltd (21.16 points), Engro Fertilisers Ltd (16.87 points), Colgate-Palmolive Pakistan Ltd (16.72 points) and Habib Bank Ltd (15.62 points).

Stocks recording the biggest declines in percentage terms included TRG Pakistan Ltd, which went down 7.5pc, followed by Jahangir Siddiqui and Company Ltd (5.64pc), Punjab Oil Mills Ltd (5.39pc), IGI Holdings Ltd (4.51pc) and Colgate-Palmolive Pakistan Ltd (3.8pc).

Published in Dawn, November 19th, 2021