Stocks manage modest gains in cautious trade
KARACHI: Sluggish participation from investors resulted in stock prices bouncing within a small range on Friday.
Arif Habib Ltd said investors remained cautious in anticipation of the upcoming release of the loan tranche from the International Monetary Fund.
The market opened on a positive note but intraday gains were wiped out as the trading session progressed, said JS Global. It recommended that investors should adopt a buy-on-dips strategy in banking, exploration and production and cement sectors going forward.
Companies that announced financial results for the October-December quarter included Pakistan State Oil Company Ltd, Millat Tractors Ltd and the Bank of Punjab.
As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 41,118.61 points, up 39.96 points or 0.1 per cent from the preceding session.
The overall trading volume decreased 22.2pc to 110.4 million shares. The traded value went down 36.7pc to $17.8m on a day-on-day basis.
Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included the Bank of Punjab Ltd (12.1m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (12m shares), BankIslami Pakistan Ltd (7.3m shares), Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (4.7m shares) and TRG Pakistan Ltd (4.2m shares).
Sectors contributing the most to the index performance were technology and communication (34.8 points), fertiliser (28.2 points), commercial banking (16.8 points), textile composite (seven points) and pharmaceutical (6.7 points).
Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Rafhan Maize Products Company Ltd (Rs391), Bata Pakistan Ltd (Rs114.99), Bhanero Textile Mills Ltd (Rs82.24), Reliance Cotton Spinning Mills Ltd (Rs44) and Blessed Textiles Ltd (Rs25).
Companies that recorded the biggest declines in their share prices in absolute terms were Unilever Pakistan Foods Ltd (Rs1,216), Sapphire Fibres Ltd (Rs57.99), Pakistan Tobacco Company Ltd (Rs51.05), Sanofi-Aventis Pakistan Ltd (Rs45.07) and Archroma Pakistan Ltd (Rs13.82).
Foreign investors were net buyers as they purchased shares worth $0.55m.
Published in Dawn, February 18th, 2023