KARACHI: Bulls were in control of the stock market on Thursday as Pakistan received its loan tranche from the International Monetary Fund.

Arif Habib Ltd said investors` p articipation remaine d high throughout the trading session with healthy volumes. The cement sector remained in the limelight.

The central bank received the much-needed loan tranche of $1.17 billion a day ago, a development that the SBP confirmed in a couple of late-night tweets.

The benchmark closed higher even though stocks came under pressure during the day because of 27.3pc annual inflation for August, highest in many decades, in addition to muted economic growth prospects for the current fiscal year owing the floodrelated losses.

`A range-bound activity and uncertain market senti-ment may continue to prevail in the upcoming trading sessions. Hence, any downside can be availed as a buying opportunity in blue-chip stocks,` said JS Global.The KSE-100 index settled at 42,460.08 points, up 108.93 points or 0.26pc per cent f rom a day ago.

The trading volume increased 36.9pc to 284.2 million shares while thetraded value went up 11.2pc to $36.7m on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Cnergyico PK Ltd (35.62m shares), MapleLeaf Cement Factory Ltd (23.49m shares), Fauji Cement Ltd (13.81m shares), Kot Addu Power Ltd (11.65m shares) and Pakistan Refinery Ltd (11.11m shares).Sectors contributing to the index performance included cement (89.8 points), banking (19.5 points), technology (18.8 points), leather (10.8 points) and investment banking (8 points).

Companies registering the biggest increase in their share prices in absolute terms were Sapphire Textile Mills Ltd (Rs84.51), Premium Textile Mills Ltd (Rs39.50), Gatron Industries Ltd (Rs26.10), Service Industries Ltd (Rs22.39) and Mari Petroleum Company Ltd (Rs17.77).

Shares that dechned the most in rupee terms were Bhanero Textile Mills Ltd (Rs102.77), Sanofi-Aventis Pakistan Ltd (Rs100.50), Nestle Pakistan Ltd (Rs70.99), Shield Corporation Ltd (Rs21.99) and Pakistan Tobacco Company Ltd (Rs18.49).

Foreign investors remained net sellers as they offloaded shares worth $1.57m.