Stocks retreat on new taxes, fuel price increase

Share prices oscillated within a short range on Thursday before closing on the lower side owing to a sharp increase in the rates of petroleum products. Arif Habib Ltd said investors’ participation remained sluggish even though they sold shares in the last trading hour to book profits across the board. Other negative triggers for the index’s downward slide included a rise in the yields of government bonds as well as the proposed new taxes of Rs170 billion in line with the recommendations of the International Monetary Fund. As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 41,078.65 points, down 248.21 points or 0.6 per cent from the preceding session. The overall trading volume increased 3.3pc to 141.9 million shares. The traded value went up 22.1pc to $28.1m on a day-on-day basis. Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included WorldCall Telecom Ltd (13.5m shares), Maple Leaf Cement Factory Ltd (11.7m shares), Meezan Bank Ltd (7.2m shares), Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (6.6m shares) and TRG Pakistan Ltd (5.8m shares).