KARACHI: The sharp recovery at the stock market seen on Monday seemed to have run out of steam as the KSE-100 index moved indecisively between the intraday high of 190 points and low of 210 points on Tuesday.

The index finally settled flat with marginal gains of 23.70 points (0.05 per cent) at 50,144.63.

Market participation thinned with volume declining 9pc over the earlier day to 232 million shares. Volume leaders were EPCL, DSL and MLCF, which together contributed 42m shares. Traded value fell 2pc over the previous session to Rs13.5 billion.

Investors are watching foreign participation numbers and the behaviour of the MSCI emerging-market passive fund managers, before deciding to book profit or take fresh positions. While the net foreign selling had clocked in at $81.7m on the rebalancing day on Friday, it had dropped sizably to $8.3m on Monday.

“International oil prices slipped as Saudi Arabia and other Arab states cut diplomatic ties with Qatar. This was reflected in oil stocks, where OGDC and POL closed down 1.43pc and 1.62pc, respectively,” pointed out analysts at JS Global. On the other hand, cement sector maintained its positive mom­entum. LUCK rose 1.43pc, DGKC 1.57pc, MLCF 3.11pc and FCCL 1.75pc from the cement sector, making positive contributions to the index.

According to Intermarket Securities, major contribution to upside came from gainers HBL up 1.51pc, LUCK 1.43pc, BAHL 2.29pc, DGKC 1.57pc and MLCF 3.11pc, adding 139 points.

On the flip side, OGDC fell 1.43pc, SNGP 2.88pc and HUBC 1.14pc, taking away 81 points. From the sector perspective, financials gai­ned 0.51pc, materials 0.47pc and industrials 0.37pc, contributing towards a closing in green.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp stated that the stocks closed slightly higher despite concerns over the foreign outflows. The gains were seen in selected banking, steel and cement stocks as investors weighed development budgets for Sindh and Punjab.

Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2017