KARACHI: The market remained range-bound on the last trading day before the three-day Eid holidays and the KSE-100 index closed flat with minor loss of 21.52 points (0.05 per cent) at 42,425.10.

The first public address by Prime Minister Imran Khan in which he promised to implement wide-ranging reforms turned out to be a non-event for the market as the investors’ worries centred on the action plan of fixing the deteriorating economic situation.

Although they were encouraged by political clarity, participants decided to postpone building new positions until after the holidays. Day traders were visibly active in profit-taking in the last half hour of trading.

In an economic development that came in after market closing hours, Pakistan’s current account deficit for July clocked in at $2.2billion, up 14pc - considerably higher than market’s expectations.

During the day’s trading, the index made an intraday high and low by 255 and 138 points. Market participation came down as investors await forward guidance on a road map to economic recovery.

The volume declined from 24pc over the previous session to 148 million shares while the traded value decreased 20pc to Rs6.4bn. Worldcall, Bank of Punjab, Engro Polymer and Chemical, Prema and Unity Foods came out as the leaders, reflecting 31pc of the total turnover. Key cement stocks like Lucky Cement, DG Khan and Fauji Cement remained positive, however, selling pressure was observed in small-ticket cement and big-ticket banks.

Overall positive performance came from sectors such as cement, higher by 36 points, fertiliser 17 points and tobacco 15 points while exploration and production shed 12 points, miscellaneous 27 points and oil and gas marketing companies 19 points.

Major laggards were Pakistan Services, down 5pc, United Bank 1.03pc, Pakistan Oilfields 0.96pc, Jubilee Life Insurance 4.75pc and Philip Morris Pakistan 5pc, taking away 80 points. On the flip side, Habib Bank, up 1.54pc, Pakistan Tobacco 4.13pc and Lucky Cement 1.20pc added 78pts.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2018