At close on Friday, the index settled with a loss of 148.52 points or 0.34% at 44,118.39 after touching an intra-day low of 44,041.52. The index started off on a positive note, but was trading lower after the mid-day break.

On a weekly basis, the benchmark index gained 0.50%. The KSE-100 has seen a volatile ride this year with the benchmark registering a meagre 1% return with one week left.

On the economic front, Pakistan reported that it has incurred foreign debt of $4.7 billion from multiple financing sources in the first five months (July-November) of 2021-22 including $1.53 billion from foreign commercial banks (33%) against the total budgeted external loans of $14.088 billion for the entire fiscal year.

The Sensitive Price Index (SPI for the current week ended December 23, 2021 recorded an increase of 0.40% WoW and 19.83% YoY, showed data released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

Meanwhile, sectors driving the benchmark KSE 100 index downwards included technology and communication (54.85 points), cement (32.55 points) and chemical (28.33 points).

Volume declined, clocking in at 223.38 million on the all-shares index, down from 240.43 million on Thursday. The value of shares traded decreased to Rs7.34 billion, down from Rs8.02 billion.

Unity Foods Limited was the volume leader with 33.50 million shares, followed by Hum Network Limited with 24.17 million shares, and TRG Pakistan Limited with 20.58 million shares.

Shares of 353 companies were traded on Friday, of which 136 registered an increase, 194 recorded a fall, and 23 remained unchanged.

This article was first published in Business Recorder on December 24, 2021.