Karachi: Stocks were hammered on the opening session of the week as worried investors decided to sit back and watch events unfolding ahead of the PTI protests.

The KSE-100 index plunged by 439.40 points and closed at 40,852.03. The index took a downturn from the start of trading and sank 497 points, clawing up a little before losing 1.06 percent over the last session.

A stock broker said that investor sentiments were also affected due to the start of futures roll-over week, which pushed weak holders to pre-empt volatility and reduce exposure.

Volumes on Monday stood down by 48pc to 278 million shares from 530m shares traded last Friday, while trading value also dipped to Rs9.48bn, lower by 42pc from Rs16.4bn. Second and third tier stocks dominated the list of heaviest traded scrips, with the first five contributing 90m shares (32pc of the aggregate volume).

The highest decline was in the banking sector, which took away 89 points. Retreating global oil prices took their toll on the E&P stocks as PPL lost 1.58pc and OGDC declined by 0.82pc. Major contribution to the downside came from UBL (-1.75pc), ENGRO (-1.82pc), MCB (-1.50pc), SEARL (-2.96pc) and PPL (-1.58%) taking away 135pts. Cement sector remained depressed on the back of escalating international coal prices. DGKC fell 0.37pc and LUCK was down by 0.52pc. HUBC and HASCOL swam against the tide and gained 0.88pc and 3.13pc, respectively. In the automobile sector INDU and HCAR closed in the red, losing 2.34pc and 1.97pc respectively. Textile too ended in the red with NML down 2.53pc and NCL lower by 3.03pc in the red.

Analysts said that upbeat results by Pakistan State Oil (PSO) failed to excite investors as the stock witnessed a 0.6pc decline. Results by Pak Electron led the stock to close at its lower limit.

Published in Dawn October 25th, 2016