KARACHI: The stock market fumbled for direction in the absence of triggers on Monday with the KSE-100 index added just 40 points (0.08 per cent) to close at 49,965 points.

Trading started on a bullish note with the index posting an intraday high of 397 points to hit 50,323, but it succumbed to selling pressure in the last hour wiping out the early gains. Some market participants attributed it to investors’ nervousness over the Panama Papers’ case hearing likely to resume this week. Others said that market was drained of liquidity as brokers and leveraged investors were spooked by the SECP crackdown on brokers violating financing regulations.

The volume increased by 2.2pc to 362 million shares, while the trading value rose by 8.6pc to Rs18.8 billion. Around 27 stocks closed on their upper circuits, while 11 scrips hit their lower limits.

“Interest was seen in the banking sector concentrated towards UBL and HBL as a foreign broker issued report stating that the SBP could lift rates in the second half of the year,” said Hammad Aman, equity sales manager at Topline Securities.

Steel sector saw a sharp drop due to unconfirmed reports that steel importers were obtaining a stay order against recently imposed definitive anti-dumping duties on galvanized steel coils/sheets and cold rolled coils (CRC) being imported from China. Major steel stocks: ASL, ISL and INIL hit their lower limits.

On reports of the government planning to import LNG gas through second gas pipeline, SNGP rose to its upper limit of 5pc. OGDC rose 1.15pc, POL 1.58pc and PPL 0.54pc as crude oil surged to trade comfortably above $53.5 a barrel.

Major activity was witnessed in engineering, cement and banking sectors.

Published in Dawn February 14th, 2017