KARACHI: Stock investors on Monday reacted positively to macroeconomic developments by keeping the benchmark index in the green zone throughout the trading session.

Positive triggers included the 78 per cent monthly reduction in the current account deficit as well as the agreement between Pakistan and Barrick Gold Corporation of Canada for the extraction of gold and copper reserves in Reko Diq at a price of $10 billion, said Arif Habib Ltd.

Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd and Pakistan Petroleum Ltd stayed in the limelight. These two companies along with Government Holdings Pakistan Ltd will have equal shares within the federal government’s 25pc stake in the Reko Diq project.

At the end of trading, the KSE-100 index gained 200.25 points or 0.47 per cent on a day-on-day basis to close at 43,230.22 points.

The trading volume decreased 30.8pc to 124.9 million shares while the traded value went down 38.4pc to $21.7m on a day-on-day basis.

Sectors that contributed the highest number of points to the benchmark index included fertiliser (58.59 points), cement (37.76 points), oil and gas exploration (24.38 points), commercial banking (21.02 points) and investment banking (16.78 points).

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Summit Bank Ltd (16m shares), Hum Network Ltd (8.92m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (7.97m shares), Treet Corporation Ltd (7.24m shares) and Engro Fertilisers Ltd (6.46m shares).

Shares contributing positively to the index included Fauji Fertiliser Company Ltd (46.54 points), Habib Bank Ltd (40.26 points), Lucky Cement Ltd (27.84 points), Dawood Hercules Corporation Ltd (18.57 points) and Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (15.17 points).

Stocks that took away the maximum number of points from the index included United Bank Ltd (13.32 points), Bank AL Habib Ltd (10.54 points), Habib Metro­politan Bank Ltd (8.74 points), Adamjee Insurance Company Ltd (8.38 points) and TRG Pakistan Ltd (7.66 points).

In percentage terms, the largest increases were registered by International Indu­stries Ltd (3.7pc), Standard Chartered Bank Pakistan Ltd (2.59pc), Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim Ltd (2.53pc), Fauji Fertiliser Company Ltd (2.5pc) and Kohinoor Textile Mills Ltd (2.42pc).

Foreign investors were net sellers as they offloaded shares worth $0.24m.

Published in Dawn, March 22nd, 2022