KARACHI: Volatility prevailed on the stock market on Thursday where the KSE-100 index closed flat with a minor gain of 8.64 points (0.02 per cent) at 48,713.63 after posting intraday gain of 229 points and loss of 62.90 points amid sluggish investor participation.

Investors remained overwhelmed by the Supreme Court hearings on the Panama Papers case. Profit-taking was witnessed in the heavyweight cement and banking stocks. Investors’ interest was seen in the fertiliser sector where Fauji Fertiliser was up 1.73pc and Engro Fertiliser 1.57pc.

Overall volume decreased by 18.3pc over the earlier day to 329m shares, while trading value declined by 17pc to Rs18bn. Steel scrips led the volumes chart.

Gains to the upside was attributable to rally in EFoods up 4.95pc, Packages 3.08pc, SEARL 1.82pc and NRL 4.92pc. Similarly, on the flip side MCB fell 0.99pc, DAWH 1.76pc, Hubco 0.77pc, HBL 0.34pc and DGKC 1.05pc.

“From sector perspective, E&P, refineries, fertilisers and autos staged a buoyant session with OGDC jumped 0.18pc, POL 0.22pc, PPL 0.39pc, ATRL 0.42pc, Engro 0.37pc, EFERT 1.67pc, HCAR 2.76pc and GHNI 5pc,” said analysts at Intermarket Securities.

Dealer Nabeel Haroon at JS Global observed that slight recovery was witnessed in the E&P sector as crude oil prices traded comfortably above $53 per barrel during the day.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp stated that refineries outperformed on surge in POL sales by over 23pc year-on-year for December. Foreign inflows, upbeat data on urea offtake for December, recovery in WTI crude prices and ease in CPI inflation favouring leveraged stocks in auto, steel and cement sectors played a catalyst in the positive close.

Published in Dawn, January 6th, 2017