KARACHI: The stock market showed positive momentum on Friday as investors looked forward to the early revival of the loan programme by the International Monetary Fund.
Another positive trigger for the stock market was a favourable reading of the sensitive price index, which recorded a week-on-week decline of 0.68 per cent, along with the expansion of 7.8pc in large-scale manufacturing on an annual basis in the first eight months of 2021-22, according to Arif Habib Ltd.
As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 46,601.54 points, up 117.11 points or 0.25pc from a day ago.
The trading volume decreased 26.1pc to 365.8 million shares while the traded value went down 21.8pc to $50.3m on a day-on-day basis.
Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Cnergyico PK Ltd (71.3m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (31.65m shares), Ghani Global Holdings Ltd (24.97m shares), Pakistan Refinery Ltd (17.7m shares) and Maple Leaf Cement Factory Ltd (10.81m shares).
Sectors that contributed the highest number of points to the benchmark index included fertiliser (45.69 points), commercial banking (37.92 points), oil and gas exploration (22.33 points), investment banking (14.77 points) and oil and gas marketing (11.31 points).
Shares contributing most positively to the index included Meezan bank Ltd (29.75 points), Engro Corporation Ltd (28.66 points), Fauji Fertiliser Company Ltd (19.36 points), Habib Metropolitan Bank Ltd (17.48 points) and Dawood Hercules Corporation Ltd (17.15 points).
Stocks that contributed most negatively to the index included The Hub Power Company Ltd (23.32 points), Bank AL Habib Ltd (16.6 points), TRG Pakistan Ltd (16.24 points), Systems Ltd (13.26 points) and Faysal Bank Ltd (11.53 points).
Shares that increased the most in percentage terms were Bannu Woollen Mills Ltd (5.9pc), Tariq Glass Industries Ltd (5.42pc), Kohinoor Textile Mills Ltd (5.15pc), National Refinery Ltd (4.38pc) and Pakistan Telecommunications Company Ltd (3.22pc).
Foreign investors were net buyers as they purchased shares worth $0.42m.
Published in Dawn, April 16th, 2022
