KARACHI: The stock market on Wednesday witnessed an intense selling pressure for the seventh day in a row dragging the KSE-100 index down by 271.96 points (0.62 per cent) to close at 34-day low of 43,795 points.

The market started on a positive note and rose to intraday high by 182 points. With rumours abound, panic selling later gripped and investors started to jettison shares in all sectors save oil. The index tanked by intraday low of 680 points before it managed to find a foothold and claw up a little with the help of institutional buying in selective fertiliser, banking and cement stocks.

With nothing to bolster investors’ sentiments, bad news continued to pile up. Already reeling under the burden of poor economic numbers, an alarmingly heated political atmosphere, pending disputes over budgetary proposals and prevailing controversy between the government and the National Accountability Bureau, whispers were heard of potential reduction of Pakistan’s weight in MSCI semi-annual review scheduled for May 14.

However, most market participants brushed them aside as rumours.

The volume improved 25pc over the previous day to 192 million shares while the traded value increased 18pc to Rs7.96 billion. Leaders were First Dawood Investment Bank, Invest Capital Investment Bank, Trust Investment Bank, Sui Southern Gas and Unity Foods, representing a quarter of the aggregate turnover.

The data compiled by National Clearing Company of Pakistan showed foreigners’ net selling of $4.9m.

Sectors contributing to the day’s decline included cement, lower by 73 points, oil and gas marketing companies 42 points, power 31 points, fertiliser 27 points and pharma 18 points.

Major laggards were Sui Northern Gas Pipelines, down 4.80pc, Lucky Cement 1.39pc, Maple Leaf Cement 4.43pc, Pakistan Tobacco 2.77pc and Indus Motor Company 3.01pc, taking away 97 points. On the flip side, MCB Bank, up 1.95pc, and Bank Al Habib 1pc added 44 points.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2018