KARACHI: The Pakistan stocks after observing a range-bound session, closed in the green territory on Wednesday, taking a direction from speculations over the timing of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme, analysts said.

An analyst at Pearl Securities said the delay in the dollar inflows from the IMF eroded gains made by the rupee. “The high yields in the money market and a high inflation number signal a rate hike in the monetary policy on Thursday. As a result, the benchmark KSE-100 shares Index made an intraday high of 232 points and settled at 41,160 points with the gain of 0.14 per cent, or 57 points.”

However, the all-share volume remained high at 98 million shares, up 28 per cent, compared with 77 million shares traded previously.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation said that the stocks showed recovery, amid speculations on the likely release of $2 billion tranche under the IMF bailout programme and subdued SBP policy announcement.

“Speculations in the earnings season and record $4.6 billion receipts in the Roshan Digital Accounts (RDA) played a catalytic role in the positive close.”

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said the benchmark KSE-100 Index witnessed sluggish session. “The investor’s participation continued to remain dry due to the concerns regarding the rate hike in the upcoming monetary policy and the rupee depreciation against the dollar. The main board activity remained dull but decent volumes were recorded in the third tier stocks.”

Major volume leaders of the day were Agritech Limited (AGL) with 25 million shares, Unity Food (UNITY) with 5 million shares and Azgard Nine (ANL) with a turnover of 4 million shares.

Mohammad Waqar at JS Global Capital said that going forward, the investors’ sentiments would largely be driven by positive news on the IMF front. “We recommend investors to adopt a buy-on-dip strategy,” he added.