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KARACHI: Equities resumed decline on Wednesday after a one-day rebound as the KSE-100 index fell 261.38 points (0.77pc) to close at 33,537.42.
The index has pulled back by 6pc during the last nine sessions, raising investors’ concerns. Yesterday’s decline followed the trend of most of emerging and developed markets where indices continued to track the Chinese market.
The local investors were spooked by incessant foreign selling which continued for the straight 10th session on Wednesday when foreigners offloaded $7.79m equities, taking the year-to-date sell-off to $167.02m. “In the last eight sessions, foreigners have sold $77m worth of Pakistan equities,” said dealers at a big brokerage firm.
Market started on a firm note as local participants extended the Tuesday’s gaining momentum pushing the index up by 221 points. But the selling soon ensued which pulled the index down by 367 points, only to show some recovery near the closing.
Trading volume fell 30pc to 279m shares (of Rs12.4bn value) from 395m shares (Rs19.1bn) the previous day.
Volume leader K-Electric closed at Rs7.64, followed by Dewan Cement with 15.4m shares traded at Rs14.90.
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“Cherry-picking was seen in Pakistan Oilfields Ltd and Hub Power Company on the back of attractive dividend yields,” commented analysts at Topline Securities.
Profit-taking was seen in large cap cement stocks — DG Khan and Lucky fell by 3.5pc and 1.5pc, respectively.
Dawood Hercules Corp announced a surprise cash dividend of Rs12 per share, but still fell by 1.7pc as it failed to attracted investor interest.
According to analyst Ahmed Saeed Khan of JS Global, the index juggled between the red and green.
Slight recovery in international crude oil prices was a positive trigger for some of scrips on the oil and gas sector. Hascol rose 3.2pc, APL 0.57pc and NRL 1.07pc.
Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2015
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