Stocks drift lower in mixed trading

KARACHI: Equities settled at a lower level at the end of Thursday’s trading session as share prices oscillated within a small range.

Topline Securities said the market sentiment remained directionless on the back of the latest auction of treasury bills that witnessed massive increases of 162 basis points and 213 basis points in three- and 12-month cut-off yields, respectively.

The rise in the yields on sovereign debt papers indicates the central bank is expected to increase the key interest rate by one to two percentage points in the upcoming monetary policy announcement scheduled for Sept 14.

According to Arif Habib Ltd, the key news driver on Thursday was Maple Leaf Cement Factory Ltd, which announced a second share buyback of up to 100 million shares.

“Declines below 45,4000 points tomorrow will be negative heading into the next week while a 46,000-point close will be positive,” it added.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 45,757.24 points, down 50.34 points or 0.11 per cent from the preceding session.

The overall trading volume increased 26.7pc to 177 million shares. The traded value increased 57.5pc to Rs7.6bn on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (13.1m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (10.9m shares), Kot Addu Power Company Ltd (10.9m shares), Maple leaf Cement Factory Ltd (10.8m shares) and Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (7.8m shares).

Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Pakistan Tobacco Company Ltd (Rs37), Reliance Cotton Spinning Mills Ltd (Rs36.75), Bhanero Textile Mills Ltd (Rs34.99), Mehmood Textile Mills Ltd (Rs20) and Bata Pakistan Ltd (Rs20).

Companies that recorded the biggest declines in their share prices in absolute terms were Lucky Cement Ltd (Rs15.04), Khyber Tobacco Company Ltd (Rs11.61), Mari Petroleum Company Ltd (Rs7.44), Indus Motor Company Ltd (Rs5.98) and Exide Pakistan Ltd (Rs5.04).

Foreign investors were net buyers as they purchased shares worth $0.38m.