Stocks lose 148 points on economic uncertainties

KARACHI: A dip in foreign exchange reserves owing to external loan payments as well as concerns about rising inflation brought the stock prices down to the red zone in the last trading hour on Friday, according to Arif Habib Ltd.

The stock market opened on a positive note as the central bank conducted another open market operation for 63 days, which helped banks collect enough liquidity to participate in the next auction of treasury bills at a lower yield. But the trading activity remained sideways as investors preferred trading hefty volumes in third-tier stocks.

As a result, the KSE-100 index lost 148.52 points or 0.34 per cent to close at 44,118.39 points.

Market participation decreased 7.1pc to 223.4 million shares while the value of traded shares also went down 8.5pc to $41.2 million.

Sectors taking away the highest number of points from the benchmark index included technology and communication (60.21 points), chemical (35.74 points), cement (25.45 points), oil and gas exploration (16.84 points) and refinery (11.39 points).

Stocks that contributed significantly to the traded volume included Hum Network Ltd (14.16m shares), TRG Pakistan (20.58m shares), TPL Properties Ltd (16.46m shares), Unity Foods Ltd (9.86m shares) and TeleCard Ltd (9.69m shares).

Shares contributing positively to the index were Abbott Laboratories Pakistan Ltd (16.67 points), Systems Ltd (15.10 points), Fatima Fertiliser Ltd (10.67 points), MCB Bank Ltd (8.33 points) and The Hub Power Company Ltd (8.01 points).

Stocks that took away the maximum number of points from the index included TRG Pakistan Ltd (66.76 points), Colgate-Palmolive Pakistan Ltd (32.77 points), Lucky Cement Ltd (14.55 points), Meezan Bank Ltd (13.00 points) and Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (9.84 points).

Stocks recording the biggest declines in percentage terms included Colgate-Palmolive Pakistan Ltd, which went down 7.44pc, followed by TRG Pakistan Ltd (4.78pc), HBL Growth Fund Ltd (3.43pc), Avanceon Ltd (2.97pc) and Pak Suzuki Motor Company Ltd (2.96pc).