KARACHI: Share pri­ces oscillated within a small range on Monday as a lack of triggers resulted in a sluggish trading session at the Pakistan Stock Exchange.

Arif Habib Ltd said investors kept waiting for the outcome of ongoing negotiations between the government and the Inter­national Monetary Fund (IMF) for the release of the overdue loan tranche.

Participation remained lethargic during trading hours with low volumes on the mainboard.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 40,246.67 points, up 41.13 points or 0.1 per cent from the preceding session.

The overall trading volume increased 6.3pc to 94.8 million shares. The traded value went up 10.7pc to $10.7m on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included WorldCall Telecom Ltd (15.6m shares), Pakistan Alumi­nium Beverage Cans Ltd (5m shares), Telecard Ltd (4.5m shares), Engro Poly­mer and Chemicals Ltd (4.1m shares) and Lotte Chemical Pakistan Ltd (3.6m shares).

Sectors contributing the most to the index performance were fertiliser (50.5 points), automobile assembling (22 points), power generation and distribution (20.1 points), tobacco (14.8 points) and automobile parts and accessories (5.6 points).

Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Nestle Pakistan Ltd (Rs104.75), Sapphire Textile Mills Ltd (Rs78.50), Pakistan Tobacco Company Ltd (Rs43.44), Khyber Textile Mills Ltd (Rs40) and Atlas Honda Ltd (Rs14.98).

Companies that reco­rded the biggest declines in their share prices in absolute terms were Siem­ens Engineering Pakistan Ltd (Rs29.99), Sapphire Fibres Ltd (Rs23.95), Towellers Ltd (Rs21.83), Murree Brewery Company Ltd (Rs21.29) and Gatron Industries Ltd (Rs13.85).

Foreign investors were net sellers as they offloa­ded shares worth $0.01m.

“Going forward, we exp­ect the range-bound activity to continue… recomm­end investors to avail any downside as an opportunity to buy in the cement and textile sectors,” said JS Global.

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2023