KARACHI: Share prices closed on the lower side on Tuesday as investors rea­cted negatively to the news report that the Inter­national Monetary Fund (IMF) requires assurance on financing the expected gap in the balance of payments in 2022-23.

Analyst Ahsan Mehanti said the ratings’ downgrade by Moody’s of five banks along with a slump in textile exports, which dropped 28 per cent to $1.2 billion in February, played the role of a catalyst in the bearish close.

Arif Habib Ltd noted that the index of representative shares moved both ways throughout the trading session owing to the prevailing political unrest.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 41,334.69 points, down 99.64 points or 0.24pc from the preceding session.

The overall trading volume decreased 27.7pc to 160.1 million shares. The traded value went down 26.4pc to $19.2m on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Telecard Ltd (23.6m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (12.3m shares), Maple Leaf Cement Factory Ltd (10m shares), K-Electric Ltd (8.6m shares) and Pioneer Cement Ltd (7m shares).

Sectors contributing negatively to the index performance were exploration and production (56 points), commercial banking (38.4 points), oil marketing (10 points), food and personal care (7.5 points) and automobile assembling (6.2 points).

Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Pakistan Tobacco Company Ltd (Rs46.35), Sapphire Fibres Ltd (Rs23.52), Ismail Industries Ltd (Rs17.54), The Thal Industries Corporation Ltd (Rs17.49) and Gatron Industries Ltd (Rs15.01).

Companies that recorded the biggest declines in their share prices in absolute terms were Rafhan Maize Products Company Ltd (Rs489.01), Pakistan Services Ltd (Rs117.60), Premium Textile Mills Ltd (Rs35.75), Blessed Textiles Ltd (Rs27.99) and Al-Ghazi Tractors Ltd (Rs8.43).

Foreign investors were net buyers as they purchased shares worth $0.17m.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2023



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