KARACHI: Stocks opened in the negative on Monday and the KSE-100 index continued to sink deeper into the red to hit intra-day low by 245 points. It managed to rebound towards the end on the back of cements and banks and close with a reduced loss of 41.14 points (0.10 per cent) at 39,457.95.

Foreign investors bought stocks worth $1.85 million on Monday, which saw some reversal from major selling on the last trading day. Volumes declined 14.6pc to 186m shares from 219m shares and trading value fell 39pc to Rs7.2bn, from Rs11.7bn in the last trading session. Market also remained subdued as Monday was the first day of futures rollover week.

Ahmed Saeed Khan of JS Global stated that the oil sector came under pressure as global crude oil prices fell after the longest run of gains in four years on news that Iraq seeks to increase exports and Nigerian militants called an end to hostilities. Biggest laggards of the sector were OGDC down 0.83pc and PPL 0.48pc.

“Pressure to the downside came on the back of selling in fertilisers as Engro fell 0.17pc, but managed to recover off its lows towards the end of trading session,” said analysts at Intermarket Securities. FFBL lost 0.17pc, FATIMA 2.34pc and EFERT 0.09pc.

Among cements, DGKC gained 0.12pc, KOHC 0.09pc, LUCK 0.29pc, MLCF 1.72pc, and CHCC 0.75pc managed to lift the sector off its lows to trade in the green. Banks staged a healthy reversal in the latter half with UBL rose 0.40pc, MCB 1.08pc and HBL 0.73pc. In the pharmaceutical sector, Searl up 1.90pc, Glaxo 2.81pc, Shifa 1.65pc and Hinoon 2.13pc.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2016