Stocks manage modest gains in range-bound trading
The stock market went through another range-bound session on Thursday even though the benchmark opened and closed in the green zone. Arif Habib Ltd said investors’ participation remained low, which caused the trading volume to decline sharply. The index fluctuated in both directions, but ended up in the green as the IT sector remained in the limelight. Analyst Ahsan Mehanti noted that selected stocks showed recovery as the earnings season rally began to catch momentum on the exchange. Investors accounted for falling government bond yields amid the status quo in the policy rate. Trading is likely to stay range-bound in the coming sessions, said JS Global, while recommending that investors should treat any downside as an opportunity to buy in cement and technology sectors. As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 42,085.72 points, up 78.58 points or 0.19 per cent from the preceding session.