KARACHI: Stocks remai­ned under selling pressure for the fourth day on Thursday with the KSE-100 index closing at a relatively minor loss of 36.92 points or 0.13 per cent to 27,774.43.

Dealers, however, reminded that the recovery came later in the day when the government indicated a non-violent approach to solving the political impasse.

“Intra-day, the index had sunk 457 points to its low, before some confidence returned among the institutional players”, said a dealer.

Also read: Stocks extend overnight losses

Foreign investors picked up equity worth $2.89 million which also supported the market.

Most market participants and analysts agreed that the index had lost nearly 10pc since the current political crisis started.

Arif Habib, former chairman KSE believed that the market decline had more to do with the sentimental impact than the actual damage.

He reminded that the standoff was confined to a limited area of the country and was not widespread.

Arif Habib stressed that though the market had taken a hit due to depressed sentiments, it had barely impacted corporate fundamentals.

Several senior brokers and analysts concurred with that analysis.

Most of them thought that the foreign investors as well as major institutional players and high net worth individuals had adopted a ‘wait and see’ stance.

An optimist even argued that the strength of dollar would benefit the textile, E&P and the IPP sectors. Mohammad Sohail, CEO at Topline Securities said that the protest in Islamabad had entered 14th day, longer than most of the investors had anticipated.

“Regardless of the outcome, it is the prolonged crisis that is sitting on investors’ mind”, he said and added that it had created uncertainty.

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2014

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