KARACHI: The massive rally witnessed on the second day of the trading week ran out of steam as the KSE-100 index tumbled 236.09 points (0.55 per cent) on Thursday to settle at 42,536.16.

The benchmark hit intraday low by 325 points on profit-taking in the rollover week for future contracts, after making an initial intraday high by 66 points.

Equities were dented following investors’ growing anxiety over several important issues. On political front, the absence of news over any progress in the government-opposition dialogue over the caretaker set-up dampened early excitement. On the economic side, the fast-depleting foreign exchange reserves and the rising current account deficit cast a pall of gloom over the market.

According to figures released by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan, foreign selling of equities amounted to $8 million.

The volume declined 3pc over the earlier day to 127m shares while the traded value dropped 16pc to Rs4.7 billion. Top traded stocks included Faysal Bank, First Dawood Investment Bank, Bank of Punjab, Unity Foods and Pak Elektron, reflecting 38pc of the total turnover.

Sectors contributing to the index decline included cement, lower by 70 points, fertiliser 34 points, banks 31 points, oil and gas marketing companies 29 points and exploration and production 20 points.

Scrip-wise, major decliners were Lucky Cement, down 2.81pc, MCB Bank 1.51pc, Pakistan State Oil 1.93pc, Colgate-Palmolive Pakistan 5pc and Oil and Gas Development Company 0.62pc, taking away 113 points. On the flip side, Pakistan Petroleum, up 0.61pc, Nishat Mills 2.13pc and Bank Alfalah 1.44pc added 30 points.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2018