KARACHI: Stocks closed flat on Friday where the KSE-100 index made a slight movement of 4.79 points on the upside to close at 40,569.35.

The index oscillated between the intra-day high and low by 125 and 302 points. Investors in general displayed lack of interest represented by nearly 30pc decline in the traded volume over the earlier day.

The dreaded second wave of Covid-19 was causing rising number of infections and casualties which was feared to lead inevitably to lockdowns in more areas, on more sections of the society and for longer hours. It raised the spectre of factory closures and loss of production, the adverse effect to be reflected on the corporate bottom lines.

“The uncertainty has put all production, sales and profit projection in disarray,” said head of a pharma company. “No one knows what lies ahead,” he added.

Rising political temperatures ahead of the Gilgit-Baltistan elections on the 15th provided more incentive to the investors to hold tight to the cash. Few were lured by the attractive stock levels while most preferred to wait for the dust to settle on various fronts, before taking fresh positions.

Investors seemed to set aside the government’s claim that except food inflation, the country’s economy was heading in the right direction with current account in surplus. Moreover, growth of 7.65pc in large-scale manufacturing (LSM) sector in September and upbeat data on home remittances in October also failed to impress.

Selling pressure was observed in exploration and production, oil & gas marketing companies and pharmaceuticals. Cement sector bounced back after a fall in the last few days, which helped neutralise part of the losses faced by the KSE-100 index.

Nabeel Haroon at Topline Securities observed that scrip-wise major contribution to the index came from Systems; HBL, HUBC, NBP and LUCK, as they cumulatively contributed 82 points to the index, whereas POL, OGDC, SNGP, PPL and PSO lost value to weigh down on the index by 121 points.

Published in Dawn, November 14th, 2020