KARACHI: The stock market snapped a five-day winning streak on Thursday, with the KSE-100 index conceding 121.69 points (0.34 per cent) to close below the 36,000 level at 35,934.99.
Several brokers admitted that the 36,000-mark was proving to be a strong resistance as it was for the second time that the benchmark had pulled back from that level.
Although institutional investors took profit in the lead of mutual funds which sold stocks worth $3.70 million, individuals were adamant and made heavy investment ($6.17m).
Meanwhile, foreign investors also decided to take profit, offloading stocks worth $3.44m, with outflows mainly from cement and telecom sectors.
Traded volume declined by 7pc to 575m shares of Rs16.9 billion value from 621m shares of Rs16.5bn value traded in the previous session.
Analyst Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp observed that the stocks closed lower on late session profit-taking in overbought scrips across the board amid fears for economic impact of floods in the country.
Oil stocks remained weak after plunge in WTI crude prices near to $49 per barrel.
The current account deficit of $2.2bn for 2014-15 and rising political uncertainty dampened sentiments.
Dealers at brokerage Topline Securities pointed out that the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines and Sui Southern Gas Company continued to climb, adding 2.8pc and 2.6pc to their value, on the back of expected hike in gas prices.
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Analyst Muhammed Mobeen at JS Global stated that the cement sector saw intense selling as DGKC declined 2.2pc, MLCF was down 1.9pc and CHCC decreased 1.6pc.
In the banking sector, United Bank Limited announced its 1H2015 results posting profit-after-tax at Rs13.01bn, up 15pc year-on-year.
BYCO also closed at its upper-circuit.
Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2015
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