KARACHI: The shares market closed on a green note on Wednesday as investors reacted positively to the decision by the Economic Coordination Committee of the Cabinet to approve a gas price increase ranging between 8 per cent and 235pc for domestic and industrial users.

As a result, Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd, Pakistan Petroleum Ltd and Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Ltd closed higher, said Topline Securities.

In the second half of trading, rumours about Pakistan reaching a staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) did the rounds, which tossed the index to an intraday high of 627 points.

“Going forward, investors’ sentiment will largely be driven by positive news on the IMF front,” said JS Global.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 41,862.77 points, up 518.76 points or 1.25pc from a day ago.

The trading volume increased 66.3pc to 164.8 million shares while the traded value went up 60.5pc to $30.9m on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included TPL Properties Ltd (14.94m shares), Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Ltd (13.57m shares), Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (9.98m shares), Pakistan Refinery Ltd (6.56m shares) and Saif Power Ltd (5.66m shares).

Sectors that contributed the highest number of points to the benchmark index included commercial banking (140.36 points), oil and gas exploration (102.62 points), technology and communication (71.44 points), cement (64.96 points) and oil and gas marketing (35.18 points).

Shares contributing most positively to the index included Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (51.45 points), Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (45.33 points), Meezan Bank Ltd (43.9 points), TRG Pakistan Ltd (36.27 points) and Lucky Cement Ltd (26.85 points).

Stocks that contributed most negatively to the index included Engro Fertilisers Ltd (6.8 points), Abbott Laboratories Pakistan Ltd (4.8 points), Pakistan Oilfields Ltd (three points), Indus Motor Company Ltd (1.72 points) and Shifa International Hospitals Ltd (1.55 points).

Foreign investors were net buyers as they purchased shares worth $0.43m.

Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2022