KARACHI: A volatile KSE-100 index, which remained on the positive side for most of the day, closed in the red with a minor loss of 34.84 points (0.10 per cent) at 35,112.29 on Friday.

The benchmark index surged by 224 points intra-day and recorded maximum intra-day loss of 57 points, signifying that the tone was firm.

Trading volume decreased to 316 million shares of Rs10.9 billion value.

Foreign investors sold $7.19m worth stocks, pulling out $2.8m from cements; $1.3m from telecom and $0.8m from banking sectors.

Ahmed Saeed Khan at JS Global observed that as the international crude prices slightly recovered, the E&P sector posted gains; HASCOL hit its upper-circuit within the first hour of trading, and similarly PSO, POL and PPL all ended 0.7pc, 0.6pc and 0.3pc higher.

Brokerage houses pointed out that, during the week, the market receded 344 points (0.97pc) on fears of massive foreign selling. Foreigners were net sellers of $22.8m.

Average daily volumes declined 6pc week-on-week to 378m shares, whereas average daily value increased 23pc to Rs16.3bn.

Major gainers were Punjab Oil, TRG Pakistan, Jubilee General Insurance, Kohat Cement and Adamjee Insura­nce, while major losers inclu­ded Arif Habib Corp, Paki­stan Oilfields, Service Indus­tries, Pakistan Petroleum and National Refinery.

Brokerage AKD Securities stated that after touching FY15 target of 35,000 points, the index took a slight breather with a minor decline of 0.97pc week-on-week.

“The lacklustre index performance came as a result of swift selling by foreigners as they opted to book profits in cement, fertiliser and food sectors. However, unlike the region, the local bourse did not see a complete sell-off by foreigners,” analysts said.

Published in Dawn, July 11th, 2015

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