KARACHI: The equity market rebounded on Tuesday after a slight decline a day ago that halted a six-day bull run on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX).

Topline Securities Ltd said investors kept a close eye on the decision by the Monetary Policy Comm­ittee of the State Bank of Pakistan, which was to be announced after market hours.

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The prevailing market sentiment indicated investors leaned towards the SBP maintaining the key interest rate at 22 per cent — a forecast that proved right subsequently.

Throughout trading hours, positive contributions from stocks in cement, auto, power, fertiliser and oil marketing sectors collectively added 222 points to the index. On the other hand, profit-taking in stocks like MCB Bank Ltd, United Bank Ltd and Service Industries Ltd resulted in a combined loss of 116 points.

As a result, the KSE-100 index closed at 66,426.78 points after gaining 414.46 points or 0.63 per cent from the preceding session.

The overall trading volume decreased 20.2pc to 969.6 million shares. The traded value decreased 19.4pc to Rs26.9 billion on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included World­Call Telecom Ltd (98.8m shares), Pakistan Teleco­mmunication Ltd (79.2m shares), K-Electric Ltd (66.7m shares), the Bank of Punjab Ltd (55.3m shares) and Telecard Ltd (47.5m shares).

Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Unilever Pakistan Foods Ltd (Rs500), Nestle Pakistan Ltd (Rs150), Pakistan Tobacco Company Ltd (Rs88.05), Sapphire Fibres Ltd (Rs66.73) and Hoechst Pakistan Ltd (Rs30).

Companies registering the biggest decreases in their share prices in absolute terms were Philip Morris Pakistan Ltd (Rs36.90), Service Indus­tries Ltd (Rs26.02), JS Global Capital Ltd (Rs15­.15), Mehmood Textile Mills Ltd (Rs12.43) and Abbott Laboratories Ltd (Rs8.38).

Foreign investors were net buyers as they purchased shares worth $0.03m.

Published in Dawn, December 13th, 2023