KARACHI: The stock market closed with a gain of 25.24 points on Monday, but remained on shaky ground as investors reflected whether the 30,000-level was a bit dizzy under the current foggy political and economic conditions.

The KSE-100 index closed at 30,070.13 on Monday, but the pressure was brought to tolerate by the bears the whole day with the benchmark hitting intra-day lows by 155 points, while at its highest, the index could gain only 51 points.

Foreign inflows continued to support the market with portfolio investment of $1.48 million on Monday; chemical sector claimed the biggest sum of $0.8m. Mutual funds were other major buyers, who awash with cash, picked up stocks at dips. “Many fund managers believe that if the market continues to rise, the cash in their hands would be trash”, said one sector watcher.

Analyst Ovais Ahsan stated that concerns over the political situation remained high as negotiations had collapsed to solve the current impasse. The oil sector led the decline as a sharp downturn in crude prices created negative sentiments in exploration stocks.

PSO lost 0.6 per cent on fears that OMCs could face inventory losses this quarter due to declining international oil prices.

The Banks led by HBL, which hit its ‘upper circuit’, moved the market into the green as earnings growth of over 25pc in the sector was anticipated for the full year driven by a change in asset mix favoured towards high yielding Pakistan Government Bonds and tamed non-performing loans provisioning.

KASB Securities stated in its technical report that the index faces a strong resistance at 30,314 which is the high of the engulfing bearish pattern formed on August 4, 2014.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2014