KARACHI: Equities closed flat in lacklustre trading session on Wed­nes­day where the benchmark KSE-100 index saw marginal fall of 9.51 points to close at 45,908.

Start to the day was on positive note with oil scrips leading gains tracking higher global crude and helping the index to retest important resistance level of 46,100.

However, it could not sustain its morning run and erased all gains by day’s close as participants, likely wary of uncertain direction of the market, chose to book profits.

The index moved between the intraday high and low of 189 and 60 points respectively. The volume evaporated with 17.6 million shares changing hands against trading in 224m shares the previous day. The traded value also dropped to Rs8.3 billion, from Rs10.3bn.

ANL was the day’s volume leader as more than 22m shares changed hands.

Elixir Securities said that index names saw very selective participation from institutional investors.

Only a handful of stocks that attracted significant institutional interest both from locals and foreigners, were Hub Power, OGDC, Fauji Fertiliser, Engro Corp and Engro Fertiliser.

According to Intermarket Securities, major contribution to index downside came from HBL which fell 0.64pc, SNGP 1.69pc, DAWH 1.42pc, NML 1.69pc and LUCK 0.37pc taking away 70 points.

Dealers at JS Global observed that the E&P sector gained 1pc as oil prices continued their uptrend. POL was up 2.02pc and PPL 1.46pc.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Ltd stated that stocks closed dull in the futures rollover week as investors’ eye the outcome of Supreme Court decision over JIT probe.

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2017