KARACHI: Shares tra­ded within a narrow range on Thursday owing to unending political unrest.

Arif Habib Ltd said the benchmark started off in the green but investors opted for the sidelines amid political trouble. It pushed the index to an intraday low of 221.37 points.

However, some value buying was seen in the final hour of trading. As a result, the index closed in the green.

Volumes remained respe­c­table, thanks to the rollover week in which futures contracts are either settled or rolled over to the next month.

JS Global said the stock market is expected to remain bearish until clarity emerges with respect to the political situation.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 41,602.86 points, up 62.83 points or 0.15 per cent from the preceding session.

The trading volume decreased 23.3pc to 203.5 million shares while the traded value went down 17.8pc to $28.7m on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included WorldCall Telecom Ltd (22.9m shares), Dewan Motors Ltd (16.8m shares), TRG Pakistan Ltd (12.5m shares), K-Electric Ltd (10.2m shares) and Hum Network Ltd (6.8m shares).

Sectors that contributed to the index performance were technology and communication (65.5 points), fertiliser (25.9 points), cement (19.4 points), commercial banking (18.5 points) and chemical (12.4 points).

Companies registering the biggest increase in their share prices in absolute terms were Sapphire Fibres Ltd (Rs68.69), Colgate-Palmolive Pakistan Ltd (Rs44.36), Sapphire Textile Mills Ltd (Rs24.68), Shield Corporation Ltd (Rs20.11) and Fazal Cloth Mills Ltd (Rs12.99).

Shares that declined the most in rupee terms were Bata Pakistan Ltd (Rs134.88), Archroma Pakistan Ltd (Rs35.06), Gatron Industries Ltd (Rs30.36), Nestle Pakistan Ltd (Rs30) and Premium Textile Mills Ltd (Rs26.81).

Foreign investors remained net buyers as they purchased shares worth $0.24m.

Published in Dawn, October 28th, 2022