KARACHI: The benchmark of representative shares managed to stay above the 57,000-point level on Monday at the end of a daylong battle between the bullish and bearish forces.

Topline Securities Ltd attributed the fierce clash of bears and bulls to the fact that Monday marked the beginning of the rollover week for the November futures contracts. There are positions worth Rs18 billion that’ll get either settled or pushed over to the next month by Friday.

“This rollover activity may likely keep the recent bull run in check for the next couple of sessions,” said the brokerage.

In addition, a rally of more than four per cent in international oil prices since Friday evening also played a part in shaping the investors’ behaviour. A combination of these factors led to some profit-taking in cement, exploration and production, technology, fertilizer and power sectors.

As a result, the KSE-100 index closed at 57,077.96 points after gaining 14.80 points or 0.03pc from the preceding session.

The overall trading volume decreased 20.3pc to 718.2 million shares. The traded value decreased 28.8pc to Rs16.6 billion on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included K-El­ectric Ltd (89.8m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (64.6m shares), Fauji Foods Ltd (50.2m shares), Pak Elektron Ltd (31.8m shares) and Hum Network Ltd (28.8m shares).

Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Rafhan Maize Products Company Ltd (Rs721.59), Hoechst Pakistan Ltd (Rs67.50), Pak­­istan Engineering Comp­­any Ltd (Rs38.13), Indus Motor Company Ltd (Rs34.43) and Pak Suzuki Motor Company Ltd (Rs24.45).

Companies registering the biggest decreases in their share prices in absolute terms were Unilever Pakistan Foods Ltd (Rs49­9.85), Nestle Pakistan Ltd (Rs100), Shield Corpor­ation Ltd (Rs27.75), Sapp­hire Text­ile Mills Ltd (Rs24.27) and Pakistan Services Ltd (Rs19).

Foreign investors were net buyers as they purchased shares worth $1.58m.

Published in Dawn, November 21st, 2023