KARACHI: Bears managed to drive away the bulls from the market on Thursday with the KSE-100 index recording a steep fall of 382.53 points (1.10 per cent) and close at 33,898.56.

After an early start in the positive and intraday gains of 80 points, the index succumbed to selling pressure at midday and went into a free fall by 444 points.

With the Financial Action Task Force decision on Pakistan due Friday, investors kept their fingers crossed. The overwhelming feeling, however, was the retention on grey list and avoidance of relegation to the black list.

The uncertainty on the political front was rearing its ugly head as the government braced for a brawl with political party in the opposition which was flexing its muscle promising to conduct the Azadi March from Oct 27. It rejected the government’s offer to hold talks and demanded the resignation of prime minister.

The volume on Thursday declined 9pc over the earlier day to 137.9 million shares while traded value fell 23pc to $24.1m.

The significant feature of trading was the overwhelming contribution to the turnover by Lotte Chemical, which saw 59.6m shares changing hands and happened to be 43pc of the day’s entire volume.

The company announced its nine-month financial results, which were largely in line with street estimates. But investors were enthused by the board’s declaration of cash dividend at Rs1.50 per share.

Other leading stocks could not make to the double digit in terms of millions of shares traded. Individuals bought scrips valued at $1.03m but mutual funds continued to reduce their positions in equities.

Sectors-wise, major contribution to the loss of 147 points came from banks. Scrips that dragged the index down included Habib Bank, decreasing by 2.53pc, United Bank 3.01pc, Mari Petroleum 4.23pc, Pakistan Petroleum 1.51pc, Pakistan State Oil 3.12pc, Hub Power 1.30pc, Lucky Cement 1.78pc, Pakistan Oilfields 1.67pc and Oil and Gas Development Company 0.95pc.

Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2019