KARACHI: Stocks tumbled in directionless trading on Tuesday, with the KSE-100 index closing down by 270.17 points (0.78 per cent) at 34,456.34.

The index initially was lifted 187 points in a strong bullish momentum, but the bears soon pulled it down by 392 points intra-day.

Market participants said that the market sentiments were far from buoyed and both institutional and individual investors stood on the sidelines.

The foreign buying simmered down to $1.27 million. Several analysts blamed the fall in local bourse to the resumption of decline in Asian stock markets after China’s manufacturing index showed further signs of weakness.

Volume stood at 353m shares. Trading value, however, rose to Rs16.8 billion from Rs14.7bn, as investors’ dealing in first-tier scrips dominated the trading.

SSGC and SNGP closed at their ‘upper limits’ after the government announced increase in gas prices.

“Profit-taking was seen in FFC (down 3.1pc) and FFBL (4.4pc), as investors felt those companies will not be able to fully pass on the gas price hike,” mused dealers at Topline Securities.

PSO declined by 3.5pc on lower than anticipated 4QFY15 results.

“Most cement scrips closed in the green as investors expect the increase in gas tariff to be passed on to the customers by the cement manufacturers,” analysts at major brokerage said.

FCCL came up with impressive 4QFY15 results but closed down 1pc.

Analysts at brokerage Arif Habib Ltd calculated that in August, despite the decline of 5pc (2.8pc in rupees), the KSE-100 outperformed the 6.9pc average decline recorded across the key MSCI indices and 9.4pc fall across Asia-Pacific. “The KSE-100 year-to-date return remained at decent 4.7pc (8.1pc in rupees).”

Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2015

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