KARACHI: Stocks shed values on Friday with the KSE-100 index pulling back by 155.01 points (0.39 per cent) to close at 39,151.78 points.

The market carried the previous day’s momentum forward and rallied to an intra-day high of 114 points. However, being the last session of the week, the index succumbed to selling pressures and remained in the red for most of the second half. On a positive note, the KSE-100 Index did clock in a new intraday high of 39,420.65 points today.

Trading volume decreased 6.1pc to 219.5 million shares on Friday and trading value was down 22.8pc to Rs11.8bn.

Figures released by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan (NCCL) showed heavy sell-offs worth $16.81m by foreign investors that were absorbed by voracious local individuals, who bought $13.12m worth of shares. However, much of this activity represented off-market transactions of 13.5m OGDC shares at a price of Rs141.50 per share.

From an index perspective, HBL, PPL, OGDC, DAWH and FFC took away 117 points on Friday while FML added 37 points to the KSE-100 Index. Major profit taking was seen in the fertilizer sector where EFERT fell 1.11pc and FFBL was down 1.78pc. “The entire fertilizer sector remained bearish on anticipation of poor results for Q2 CY16 due to declining fertilizer off-take”, said dealers at Global Securities.

In the E&P sector, OGDC fell 1.32pc), PPL 1.92pc and POL 0.41pc. In the auto sector Hino hit its lower circuit, which dragged most auto stocks to the red in anticipation of weak results and a strengthening yen.

Analyst Ahsan Mehanti stated that stocks fell due to institutional profit taking in blue chip scrips on weak economic outlook. “Falling crude oil prices, subdued export data for 2015-2016 and shrinking banking spreads played a catalytic role in the bearish close.”

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2016