KARACHI: The stock market on Tuesday continued witnessing depressed trading on persisting political uncertainty amid calls from the US and UK ambassadors for fair polls as a result the benchmark KSE 100-share index closed the session on a negative note.

Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation told Dawn that the growing politi­cal uncertainty reg­ar­ding the holding of general elections on Feb 8 and the downturn in global markets were the key factors that fuelled gloomy conditions on the PSX.

He added that the equity market outlook would remain uncertain till the date of the poll because the Western countries stressed inclusive elections and the IMF talks would be impacted by it.

Topline Securities Ltd said the index swung in the range of 908 points. It reached an intraday high of 64,786 (gaining 549.33 points) and a low of 63,878 ( 358.81 points).

JS Global Capital Ltd said the auto sector led the market recovery where Honda Atlas Cars (Pakistan) Ltd, Pak Suzuki and Sazgar Engineering Works Ltd closed at their respective upper circuits. In addition, the fertiliser and refinery sectors also posted gains. However, banks, exploration and production and steel sectors saw profit-taking.

The KSE-100 index closed at 64,170.58 points after losing 66.45 points or 0.10 per cent from the preceding session.

The overall trading volume dipped by 7.23pc to 448.99 million shares. The traded value also fell 3.63pc to Rs12.28bn on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included K-Electric Ltd (113.95m shares), Has­col Petroleum Ltd (36.11m shares), Pakistan Inter­na­tional Airlines Cor­po­­ration (19.81m shares), Pak Elek­tron Ltd (19.13m shares) and Worldcall Telecom Ltd (18.30m shares).

Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Sapphire Fibres (Rs119.00), Pak Suzuki (Rs54.25), IMC (Rs53.91), Hoechst Pakistan Ltd (Rs40.80) and Khairpur Sugar (Rs34.50).

Companies registering the biggest decreases in their share prices in absolute terms were Nestle Pakistan Ltd (Rs50.00), Bata Pakistan (Rs40.98), Pakistan Services (Rs34.95), Pakistan Tobacco (Rs15.40) and Archroma Pakistan Ltd (Rs14.98).

Published in Dawn, January 10th, 2024