KARACHI: Stocks drifted lower for the third consecutive day on Friday on account of unabated foreign selling, with the KSE-100 index taking a plunge of 192.79 points (0.57 per cent) to close at 33,885.13.

The foreigners took profit with the sale of $5.54 million worth shares as stock markets across Asia turned easy. Inflow of $1m was seen in banking, while outflow of $1.1m in fertiliser sector.

The pressure was further exacerbated by selling of $6.36m worth stocks by mutual funds.

Analyst Ahsan Mehanti commented that stocks closed bearish amid institutional profit-taking in selected scrips.

The CCP’s initiative to check practices of auto assemblers and expectations of dismal Consumer Price Index data for May 2015 played a catalyst role in the bearish activity. Analyst Ahmed Saeed Khan stated that the sentiments were dominated by future settlements. Selling was witnessed across the board with sideboard items in the spotlight.

In cement sector, DCL and POWER ended lower by 6.5pc and 6.3pc.

PAEL and BYCO also saw profit-taking as both stocks ended at their lower-circuit.

In oil and gas sector, PSO, OGDC and PPL ended down by 1.5pc, 2.3pc and 2.8pc.

During the week, the market lost 642 points (1.86pc).

AKD Securities stated that the market remained lacklustre with average daily volumes shrinking to 357.6m shares, down by 22pc week-on-week.

“While trading hours shortened due to Ramazan, lack of triggers further aggravated the lacklustre performance of the market.”

Foreigners remained net sellers for the week with outflow of $16.1m.

Major gainers during the week were Arif Habib and Nishat (Chunian), while Honda Atlas Cars and OGDCL stood out as major losers.

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2015

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