KARACHI: Stocks tumbled on Friday as the benchmark KSE-100 index fell 431 points to close at 49,527 on thin investor participation.

The gains seen earlier in the week fizzled out in the closing days, confirming the ‘dead cat bounce’, a temporary rally caused by speculators who were covering their positions.

Market participants could count a whole lot of negative factors that justified the stock meltdown on Friday. Those included rising political noise over the Panama Papers case, decline in crude oil prices on the Qatari turmoil and an unkind budget 2017-18 for the stocks.

The Ramazan factor which reduces the trading timing along with slowdown in investors’ interest to trade also took its toll on the index. All of those put into shade the foreign portfolio inflows recorded in the last three sessions.

Trading activity was led by cement and chemical sectors which saw change of hands in 32 million and 31m shares. Engro Polymer and Chemicals Ltd again led the market in terms of volume, but its stock shed 3.12pc on Friday after previous four back-to-back ‘upper circuits’.

Habib Bank Ltd fell 1.65pc, United Bank Ltd 1.82pc, Pakistan Petroleum 2.47pc, Sui Northern gas Pipelines Ltd 2.77pc and Bank AL Habib Ltd 2.41pc, collectively taking away 189 points off the index. On the flip side, Abbott Laboratories (Pakistan) Ltd rose 2.68pc, Pakistan Oilfields 0.79pc and Fauji Fertiliser Company 0.52pc, adding 26 points to the index.

From the sector perspective, telecommunication services dropped 1.72pc, consumer discretionary 1.66pc and financials 1.4pc.

In the auto sector, Indus Motor Company Ltd fell 0.97pc on the back of news that the company recalled 2,700 cars due to faulty mounting bolts, analysts at JS Global said.

Published in Dawn, June 10th, 2017