KARACHI: Late session recovery helped the KSE-100 index to bounce back from 16-day low and close with trimmed loses of 90.86 points (0.20 per cent) at 45,387.77 on Thursday.

The session started out with recovery of 14 points following the heavy fall recorded a day earlier. But the index soon succumbed to selling pressure which snowballed into panic-selling, sending it down to intraday low by 356 points, which turned out to be the 16-session low level of the benchmark index.

Major selling erupted in the banking, cement and fertiliser sectors, triggering a domino effect with stocks of most sectors turning red while efforts of leading market participants failed to calm the market. Dealers at Arif Habib Ltd said that the buyers were scant and bid-ask spread widened in key scrips without trade execution.

Oil and Gas Development Company remained the punching bag for investors. The international price of oil, which settled at record high since December 2014, also failed to entice them. After several days of net buying, foreign investors also took to slight profit-taking.

Sectors contributing to the downturn included cement, lower by 73 points, fertiliser 31 points, technology 15 points while exploration and production closed higher by 74 points and tobacco 24 points. In the banking sector, as expected, United Bank Ltd (UBL) traded lower on knee-jerk reaction to poor quarterly earnings released a day earlier.

Major contribution to the index decline came from Lucky Cement, down 1.68pc, Fauji Cement 4.77pc, DG Khan Cement 2.01pc, Maple Leaf Cement 3.31pc and UBL 0.63pc, taking away 91 points. On the flip side, Pakistan Oilfields, up 1.78pc, Pakistan Tobacco 4.87pc and Pakistan Petroleum Ltd 1pc added 72 points.

Published in Dawn, April 20th, 2018