KARACHI: On the eve of Independence Day, the stock market extended the overnight losses in mixed trading as jittery investors opted to take profits on Tuesday amid mounting political tensions.

Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said stocks closed lower on uncertainty over IMF’s approval for the proposed termination of contracts with 15 independent power producers and a likely cut of up to Rs400 billion in the Rs1.4tr Public Sector Develop­ment Plan for 2024-25, depressing market sentiments.

He added that geopolitical uncertainty, a weak rupee and dismal auto sales falling by 36 per cent month-on-month in July also contributed to the bearish close.

Topline Securities Ltd said bears dominated the trading arena despite a positive start. However, investors chose to take some profit, which compelled the benchmark index to go into negative territory.

Nonetheless, value-hunting at the day’s low helped the index trim some of the losses towards the end of the session.

Power, fertiliser and auto sector stocks contributed negatively to the index as Hub Power, Fauji Fertiliser, Millat Tractor, Thal Ltd and Engro Fertiliser lost 157 points. Conversely, stocks like Mari Petroleum, Lucky Cement and Javedan Corporation Ltd experienced buying interest, resulting in a combined positive contribution of 147 points.

As a result, the benchmark index hit an intraday high of 78,275.97 points and a low of 77,817.33. However, it settled at 77,877.42 after losing 102.87 points or 0.13pc on a day-on-day basis.

The overall trading volume surged by 45.51pc to 604.14 million shares. The traded value, however, dipped 10.16pc to Rs19.98bn on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Kohinoor Spinning Mills Ltd (131.91m shares), Yousaf Weaving (89.20m shares),

Hascol Petroleum (47.80m shares), WorldCall Telecom (28.38m shares) and Air Link Comm­unication (19.30m shares).

The shares registering the most significant increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Mari Petroleum (Rs129.00), Hoechst Pakistan (Rs91.27), Exide Pakistan (Rs90.25), Nestle Pakistan (Rs45.50) and Hallmark Company (Rs44.52).

The companies regis­tering significant decre­ases in their share prices in absolute terms were Unilever Foods (Rs322.99), Khyber Tex­tile (Rs54.45), Reliance Cotton (Rs52.80), Pak Engineering (Rs40.09) and Leiner Pak Gelatine (Rs36.63).

Foreign investors rem­ained net buyers as they purchased shares worth $0.22m.

Published in Dawn, August 14th, 2024