KARACHI: Stocks fell further for the fourth day on the PSX with the KSE-100 index losing another 214.57 points (0.42 per cent) on Friday to close at 50,742.03.

Under intense selling pressure, the index has suffered a loss of 1,647 points (3.18pc) in the four days following a positive close on Monday. It spiraled downward by 2,105 points since its intra-day all-time high of 52,847 points on May 16.

Investors who had hoped for a rally following the upgrade of Pakistan Stock Exchange to MSCI Emerging Market index were disappointed as profit taking continued with foreign investors intensifying their sell-off in the last two days.

On Friday, the stock decline was ahead of rollover week. During the day trading was choppy with the index making intra-day high by +241 points and intra-day low by-290 points.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp stated that the bearish close was witnessed at PSX amid concerns for record current account deficit and likely status quo in the State Bank of Pakistan’s Policy rate announcement today.

Volume climbed to 345 million shares, from 302m shares traded a day ago. Retail favourites witnessed heavy investor interest with second and third tier stocks dominating the list of the top 10 traded stocks.

Major contribution to downside came from HUBC, which fell 1.85pc, UBL 1.15pc, LUCK 1.14pc, HBL 0.54pc and DGKC 1.69pc, taking away 131 points.

On the flip side, POL rose 2.13pc, PPL 1.06pc and MARI 1.24pc, adding 49 points.

Cement sector continued its previous day trend as profit taking was witnessed in the sector where losers were CHCC 3.63pc, DGKC 1.69pc and LUCK 1.14pc, all closing in the red zone.

On the other hand, E&P gained to close 0.36pc higher than its previous day close as US oil prices climbed to one-month highs at $49.93/bbl level. Winners of the sector were POL gaining 2.13pc and PPL 1.06pc.

Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2017