KARACHI: Stocks caved in to selling pressure on Thursday as investors were spooked by the inconclusive bailout negotiations with the International Monetary Fund.
Although talks between the two sides have been extended to try and reach an agreement before the IMF’s board meeting on Jan 15, investors were sceptic over any change in rigid stance of either party going forward.
The KSE-100 index spiralled all the way down to intraday low by 623 points, before recovering a bit of ground with closing seen at 40,874.03, down 545.21 points (1.32 per cent).
With no specified financial assistance coming from China or the UAE, investors worried that the country could be in the eye of the storm in averting balance of payment crisis.
Uncertainty over State Bank policy rate stance next week and continuous foreign outflows which amounted to $2.08 million worth stocks further impacted sentiments as even the institutional investors reconsidered their long positions.
The volume declined further 4.3pc to 160m shares while traded value increased by 5pc to Rs8.09 billion, from Rs7.68bn. Exploration and production sector was the worst performer, taking away 234 points from the Index on account of declining international oil prices.
Buying activity was witnessed in cement as international coal futures tumbled below $90 per tonne with Cherat and Lucky Cement leading the gainers. Selling pressure was also witnessed in banking where big banks cumulatively scrapped 153 points to the declining index as MCB, Habib, United and National Bank closed in the red.
Scrip-wise, major decliners were Habib Bank, down 3.98pc, Pakistan Petroleum 3.65pc, Oil and Gas Development Company 3.41pc, Pakistan Oilfields 4.57pc and Engro Corporation 1.96pc, taking away 339 points. On the flip side, Hub Power gained 0.79pc to add 11 points.
Published in Dawn, November 23rd, 2018
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