KARACHI: Share prices tumbled on Monday as investors reacted negatively to the speculations about a hike in the key interest rate in the coming days.

Arif Habib Ltd said the benchmark of representative shares opened on the lower side and continued to trade below the level of the preceding day’s close while hitting an intraday low of 494.64 points.

“Given the country’s political turmoil, investors chose to remain on the sidelines,” it said, noting that the cautious approach resulted in significant volume declines across the board.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 40,673.64 points, down 444.97 points or 1.08 per cent from the preceding session.

The overall trading volume decreased 16pc to 92.7 million shares. The traded value went down 4.3pc to $17m on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included WorldCall Telecom Ltd (6.4m shares), Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (5.4m shares), TRG Pakistan Ltd (4.4m shares), Cnergyico PK Ltd (4.1m shares) and the Bank of Punjab Ltd (3.9m shares).

Sectors contributing the most to the index performance were exploration and production (-139.1 points), commercial banking (-95.1 points), fertiliser (-44.9 points), oil marketing (-41.3 points) and cement (-38.6 points).

Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Premium Textile Mills Ltd (Rs36.46), Pakistan Tobacco Company Ltd (Rs28.63), Nestle Pakistan Ltd (Rs17.95), Lucky Core Industries Ltd (Rs10.35) and Systems Ltd (Rs7.47).

Companies that recorded the biggest declines in their share prices in absolute terms were Rafhan Maize Products Company Ltd (Rs689.25), Bata Pakistan Ltd (Rs149.24), Reliance Cotton Spinning Mills Ltd (Rs52.42), Sapphire Fibres Ltd (Rs49) and Gatron Industries Ltd (Rs25.01).

Foreign investors were net buyers as they purchased shares worth $0.38m.

Published in Dawn, February 21st, 2023