Stocks manage modest gains in cautious trade

Share prices hovered on the higher side on Wednesday following the less-than-expected hike of 100 basis points in the key interest rate that the Monetary Policy Committee announced a day earlier. Arif Habib Ltd said the interest rate increase of one percentage point surprised investors and boosted their confidence. The bourse continued to trade positively throughout the trading session, even though the investors’ participation remained sluggish owing to the ongoing political confrontation. JS Global said investors should stay careful and wait for dips to build their portfolios in value stocks only. As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 39,717.15 points, up 29.89 points or 0.08 per cent from the preceding session. The overall trading volume increased 4.2pc to 86.7 million shares. The traded value went up 11.2pc to $8.5m on a day-on-day basis. Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Silkbank Ltd (11m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (5.7m shares), Telecard Ltd (5.3m shares), Panther Tyres Ltd (4.6m shares) and Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (4.5m shares).