KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock market continued to witness profit-taking on Thursday where late recovery was seen in the banking stocks, as the joint session of the Parliament approved a bill that would pave the way for increasing the central bank’s autonomy; thus, bringing it a step closer to reviving the delayed International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan programme.
The foreign direct investment (FDI) continued to post negative growth, reaching $662 million, down 12 per cent in the four months of FY22.
The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares Index shed 0.18 per cent, or 83.92 points, to close at 46,110.5 points. The KSE-30 shares Index shed 0.32 per cent, or 54.04 points, to close at 17,894.99 points.
As many as 340 scrips were active, of which 150 advanced, 166 declined and 24 remained unchanged. The ready market volumes stood at 263.5 million shares, compared with the turnover of 238.49 million shares in the last trading session.
The companies that reflected the highest gains included Unilever Foods, up Rs1,100 to close at Rs20,000/share; and Sapphire Fiber, up Rs53 to close at Rs893/share.

The companies, which reflected the most losses included Colgate Palmolive, down Rs94.95 to close at Rs2505.05/share; and Sapphire Textile, down Rs42.68 to close at Rs1206.39/share.
The highest volumes were witnessed in Merit Packaging (Rights) with a turnover of 42.18 million shares. The scrip shed 32 paisas to close at five paisas/share; followed by Ghani Global with a turnover of 29.06 million shares. It gained Rs1.58 to close at Rs33.23/share. Service Fabrics remained the third with a turnover of 17.73 million shares. It gained 93 paisas to finish at Rs12.87.