KARACHI: Bears extended their onslaught for the second day on Tuesday when the KSE-100 index fell 192 points (0.46 per cent) to close at 41,2912.

Elixir Securities observed that market opened negative and traded lower from the beginning. The benchmark index was dragged down to below 41,000 support intraday. Nearly all key sectors finished lower on lacklustre trading. However, select index names across financials, textiles and oils saw an uptick in activity in late trading reportedly on cherry-picking by local institutions.

Topline Securities stated: “Market was under pressure from the word go, in absence of any major triggers. Pressure due to futures rollover was observed which was further exacerbated due to rumours of a meeting of cement players to discuss pricing pressure (which apparently turned out to be false news)”.

There was some buying in late session which pared morning losses. Wider market activity remained dry noticeable from the volume of 143m shares for the day, down 7pc from 153m shares the previous day. The traded value also slid 15pc over the previous day to Rs6.76bn. Foreign investors bought equity worth $0.953m, while mutual funds continued to add to their cash pile with sell-off of $3.02m.

Major contribution to downside came from UBL, which fell 1.63pc, HBL 0.96pc, FCCL 4.51pc, Hubco 1.33pc and PAEL 5pc, taking away 113 points. On the flip side, MCB Bank gained 1.62pc, POL 1.80pc and EFERT 2.73pc, adding 69 points.

According to Intermarket Securities, cement sector closed negative where heavyweights DGKC, which went down 1.69pc, FCCL 4.51pc, CHCC 0.92pc and PIOC 4.34pc.

A rally was witnessed in the steel sector on back of NTC imposing anti-dumping duty on imported re-bars. ASL up 4.55pc, ASTL 2.21pc and ISL 0.92pc closed positive.

Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2017