KARACHI: The Stocks witnessed a lackluster session on Monday as the investors remained wary of the fresh conditions imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which would result in increased cost of production and inflation.
An analyst at Pearl Securities said that the benchmark KSE-100 Index witnessed a dull session as the IMF in its review has slapped six more conditions on Pakistan and cued about the pressurised economic variables.
“Further, the higher coal prices at $183/tonen and surge in the international oil prices to $94/barrel led to a bearish sentiment across the board,” he added.
The Pakistan stock exchange KSE-100 shares Index shed 0.15 per cent, or 44.85 points, to close at 45,841.93 points. The KSE-30 shares Index shed 0.24 per cent, or 42.63 points, to close at 17,926.27 points.
As many as 362 scrips were active of which 114 advanced, 227 declined and 21 remained unchanged.
The ready market volumes stood at 150.1 million shares, compared with the turnover of 192.4 million shares in the last trading session.
An analyst at Topline Securities said that the equities initiated the week on a positive note but the index behaved directionless throughout the day.
“Exploration and Production, Fertilizer, Power and Banking sectors’ stocks contributed positively, while TRG Pakistan, Lucky Cement and Pak Electron witnessed some profit taking,” he added.
Going forward, the analysts expect the market to remain volatile owing to the concerns over the political scenario coupled with the hike in international commodities.
The companies which reflected the highest gains included, Sapphire Textile up Rs64.50 to close at Rs1,109/share and Premier Sugar up Rs37.5 to close at Rs537.5/share.
The companies which reflected the most losses included, vdown Rs960 to close at Rs21,000/share and Sanofi Aventis down Rs31 to close at Rs850/share.
The highest volumes were witnessed in Pak Elektron with a turnover of 8.29 million shares. The scrip shed Rs1.8 to close at Rs22.26/share, followed by Cnergyico with a turnover of 7.87 million shares, as it shed 12 paisas to closes at Rs6.12/share. Hum Network remained the third with a turnover of 6.5 million shares. It shed 5 paisas to finish at Rs7.5/share.
