KARACHI: The stock market extended decline for the second day on Tuesday, with the KSE-100 index losing 42.02 points to close at 35,546.03.

Traded volume was down by 20 per cent to 278 million shares from 348m, while the value rose 14pc to Rs12.7 billion from Rs11.1bn the previous day.

Low priced stocks K-Electric; Pace (Pakistan) and Dewan Cement were again the volume leaders with trading seen in 41m; 12.9m and 12.7m shares, respectively.

Foreigners sold $8.03m worth stocks. The month-to-date foreign sale amounted to $6.20m while foreign portfolio investment outflow year-to-date stood at $102m.

Analyst Ahmed Saeed Khan at JS Global said that the market opened on a positive note as the prime minister rejected MQM resignations from the parliament and despatched a leading politician to reconcile with the fourth biggest party in the country.

But the market came under pressure at mid-day on news of target killing attempt on a front ranking MQM leader, which critically injured him.

Positivity in the first half was led by auto and pharma sectors, with major gainers being Searle Pakistan up 3.1pc, Abbott Lab by 0.9pc and Indus Motors by 0.5pc.

Bullish momentum was witnessed in the cement sector owing to a possible increase in despatches in northern areas and a drop in global coal prices to a seven-year low. Major gainers were MLCF up 3.3pc and PIOC by 1.6pc.

Engro Corp gained 0.4pc as it announced better-than-expected results, with a cash dividend of Rs4 per share.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp commented that stocks closed lower on panic-selling. The drop in WTI crude price, major fall in Asian stocks and political uncertainty were factors attributed to bearish activity.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2015

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