KARACHI: Led by the foreign institutional investors, the stock market went into profit-taking on Wednesday.

Trading remained volatile but the KSE-100 index fell deep in the red by 112.38 points to close at 30,113.24, with volume rising by 57pc over the earlier day.

Data released by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited (NCCPL) showed foreign selling for the third consecutive day this week with an outflow of $3.9 million on Wednesday. It took the three-day foreign sell-off to $9.46m.

In the heavyweight oil and gas sector, nine of 13 stocks finished in the minus column with PSO down by Rs4.84 and Mari losing Rs8.71. The market was thought to remain dull in the remaining two days this week as investors might book profit ahead of the long weekend holidays.

“SEARL and GLAXO continued euphoric growth as the pharmaceutical sector has urged the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) to finalise the pricing policy that would benefit the government and the consumers,” said analyst Arhum Ghous at JS Global.

Textile sector was seen under pressure as Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) announced that there would be no gas for the industry during three months of winter due to shortage. To further weaken sentiments in the sector, NML announced first-quarter res-ults with earnings per share at Rs1.14, down 74pc quarter-on-quarter, while NCL posted loss per share at Rs1.19.

Analyst Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp observed that stocks closed lower amid bearish activity in selected stocks across the board on below-expected payouts for the quarter.

“Economic uncertainty, rising political noise over privatisation of profitable SOEs (state-owned enterprises) and mixed outlook for global equities and commodities played a catalyst role in bearish activity despite easing circular debt concerns,” said Mehanti.

Brokerage Sunrise Capital observed that in the banking sector NBP, FABL and AKBL dropped by 0.61pc, 2.31pc and 1.61pc. In the chemical sector, ENGRO plunged by 1.66pc and in the electricity sector LPL and NCPL were up by 4.75pc and 0.95pc, respectively, on improved earnings.

Published in Dawn, October 30th , 2014