Stocks edge higher in range-bound trade
Share prices oscillated within a small range on Monday as a lack of triggers resulted in a sluggish trading session at the Pakistan Stock Exchange. Arif Habib Ltd said investors kept waiting for the outcome of ongoing negotiations between the government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the release of the overdue loan tranche. Participation remained lethargic during trading hours with low volumes on the mainboard. As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 40,246.67 points, up 41.13 points or 0.1 per cent from the preceding session. The overall trading volume increased 6.3pc to 94.8 million shares. The traded value went up 10.7pc to $10.7m on a day-on-day basis. Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included WorldCall Telecom Ltd (15.6m shares), Pakistan Aluminium Beverage Cans Ltd (5m shares), Telecard Ltd (4.5m shares), Engro Polymer and Chemicals Ltd (4.1m shares) and Lotte Chemical Pakistan Ltd (3.6m shares). Sectors contributing the most to the index performance were fertiliser (50.5 points), automobile assembling (22 points), power generation and distribution (20.1 points), tobacco (14.8 points) and automobile parts and accessories (5.6 points).