KARACHI: A range-bound session was witnessed at the share market on Friday where the KSE-100 index closed lightly down by 17.80 points (0.04pc) at 40,248.41.

The index took investors on a roller-coaster ride making intraday high by 102 points and low of 183 points. Much of the selling pressure was witnessed during the first half, Friday being the last day of the rollover week.

For the third day in a row, K-Electric grabbed the spotlight with trading in 26m shares which accounted for a quarter of the entire day’s turnover of 106m shares.

KE rose 6pc amid news flow that the chairman Shanghai Electric, Abraj representatives and KEL management called on the minister for privatisation and discussed matters pertaining to transition of the new prospective company and processing of no-objection certificate for the transaction. Refineries and PSO staged a comeback with ATRL up 3.48pc, NRL 2.28pc and PSO 2.79pc.

The volume turned 4.4pc higher to 106m shares from a day ago. while the traded value fell to Rs4.53bn from Rs5.37bn as second- and third-tier scrips again dominated trading.

Major contribution to the index downside came from Nestle fell 5pc, UBL 1.81pc, Dawood Hercules 2.11pc, HBL 0.47pc and NML 2.09pc, taking away 118 points.

On the flip side, Hub Power was up 2.19, Engro Corp 1.71pc and PSO 2.79pc, adding 80 points.

JS Global stated that mixed sentiments were observed in the banking sector on anticipation of unchanged key interest rate in the upcoming announcement of monetary policy.

Daily traded value fell to Rs4.53bn from Rs5.37bn as second and third-tier scrips again dominated trading.

Published in Dawn, November 25th, 2017