KARACHI: The strong rally built up over the week took a pause on Friday when the KSE-100 index settled lower by 90.52 points (0.31 per cent) at 29,513.78 after a roller coaster ride.

Investors sounded peeved about the political situation fiercely debated at the Parliament. Heavy rains and floods in Punjab and the fears over what turn the nagging issues facing the country could take during the weekend pushed institutional investors to take profit.

Also read: Stocks manage modest gain

High net worth individuals, however, built up positions recording net purchases of shares valued at $2.24 million, encouraged by the all-cash market. The shining star was again the foreign portfolio inflow where overseas investors bought net $6.24m worth stocks.

Analyst Arhum Ghous at JS Global observed that volumes stood low at 152m shares against 223m shares on Thursday as investors remained cautious as weekend approaches. “The market is expected to pick momentum in the next few trading sessions as political situation is gradually phasing out and investors will keenly look at foreign portfolio flows as any large inflow will induce more buying from local participants.” Many others echoed the same view.

Brokerage AKD Secu­rities in its weekly report recalled that an evident dip in political risk saw the market remain upbeat. Prime impetus to the aforementioned performance came in from robust foreign inflow amounting to $18.7m as opposed to net inflow of $8.5m the previous week.

Key news flow during the week included: Inflation (CPI) for August which settled at a 14-month low of 7.0pc year on year; increase of $164m in SBP-held foreign exchange reserves; and Inter-corporate circular debt reaching Rs534bn.

Published in Dawn, September 6th , 2014