KARACHI: Stocks remai­ned firm for most of the day on Friday, but widespread profit-taking in the last half hour turned the tide with the KSE-100 index closing down by 128.43 points (0.28 per cent) at 45,259.34.

Investors, who were spooked by the rising temperature on the political front, decided to liquidate their positions ahead of the weekend. Uncertainty over the upcoming Federal Budget 2018-19 and the fate of amnesty scheme pushed most of them to the sidelines.

But institutions took advantage of the discounted prices and swooped to cherry-pick blue-chip scrips almost throughout the day which carried the index to intraday high by 138 points.

All hell broke loose in the last thirty minutes as investors started to jettison shares which resulted in the index sinking to intraday low by 128 points. Financial results by major companies such as Engro Fertilisers and Amreli Steels failed to put floor under the market fall.

Sectors that contributed to the bearish close included commercial banks, lower by 135 points, cement 59 points, exploration and production 43 points, power 22 points and oil and gas marketing companies 12 points.

The volume decreased 22pc over the earlier day to 144 million shares while the traded value also declined 24pc to Rs6.52 billion. Stocks that contributed significantly to the volume included Lotte Chemical, Engro Polymer and Chem­ical, Azgard Nine, Fauji Fertiliser and Descon Oxyc­hem, representing 35pc of the total share. Analyst Ahsan Mehanti attributed the market down turn to budget uncertainty, speculation on tax measures for banking sector, widening current account deficit and the circular debt crisis.

Among specific stocks, the chief laggards were United Bank, down 2.19pc, Lucky Cement 2.07pc, Habib Bank 1.05pc, Pakistan Oilfields 1.71pc and Hub Power 1.18pc, taking away 155 points. On the flip side, Engro Fertilisers gained 1.90pc, Kohinoor Textil Mills 4.86pc and Colgate-Palmolive Pakistan 4.79pc cumulatively added 47 points to the index.

Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2018