Stocks fall on deepening of economic turmoil.

KARACHI -- The representative index of the Pakistan Stock Exchange moved within a short range on Thursday amid sluggish activity throughout the session.

Arif Habib Ltd said investors opted to remain on the sidelines on account of the long delay in the signing of a staff-level agreement between the government and the International Monetary Fund for the release of $1.1bn tranche. In addition, prevailing political uncertainty also affected investors' confidence, it added.

Some bottom fishing in cement stocks was witnessed towards the end of the session, which made the index recover some of the lost ground, according to JS Global.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 39,848.35 points, down 31.54 points or 0.08 per cent from the preceding session.

The overall trading volume decreased 18.5pc to 88.7 million shares. The traded value went up 24.1pc to $14m on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Telecard Ltd (6.2m shares), Pak Elektron Ltd (6.1m shares), Engro Corporation Ltd (5.4m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (4.9m shares) and Agha Steel Industries Ltd (3.6m shares).

Sectors contributing...