Karachi: The PSX witnessed a selling spree for the fourth session in a row on Thursday which pushed the KSE-100 index below the 40,000 points to settle at 39,987.31 falling by 539.50 points (1.33 per cent).

Fear gripped investors as the uncertainty on the political front deepened as confrontational political rhetoric between PML-N and PTI intensified close to the D-day (Nov 2). Investors dumped their positions across the board to reduce exposure in stocks.

Foreign investors seized the opportunity to buy stocks worth $8.70m at attractive levels. Among local participants mutual funds decided to take profit through sale of equity worth $10.18m mainly to protect their capital-protected funds.

Overall, volumes declined by 10.3pc to 384m shares, while value decreased by 3.9pc to Rs12.4bn over the earlier day. “Major participation was once again prominent in 2nd and 3rd tier names but this time around a whopping number of scrips, 67 to be precise, closed on their lower circuit limits”, said analysts at Intermarket Securities.

“Better than expected earnings announcements made by major companies during the session failed to provide the market with much needed support as majority of the stocks closed red”, said Abra Juma, analyst at Global Securities. E&P came under selling pressure underpinned by retreating crude oil prices amid doubts over OPEC’s ability to enforce production cuts at its November meeting. OGDC, POL and PPL all closed in the red, falling by 1.28pc, 2.06pc and 2.44pc respectively. Cements fared better with LUCK up by 0.19pc, PIOC by0.04pc and MLCF by 0.59pc, all three trading into green amid prospects of increase in cement prices in a phased manner to mitigate the effect of rising coal prices on margins.

Published in Dawn, October 28th, 2016