KARACHI: Despite strong corporate earning announcements, the stock market on Thursday remained under selling pressure amid rising Covid cases and upcoming rollover week as the benchmark KSE 100 index lost 376.93 points, or 0.83 per cent, to close at 44,929.61.

The possibility of stricter restrictions by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) dented investor confidence who continued offloading their positions.

According to Topline Securities Ltd, the E&P sector closed 1.96pc down on lower international oil prices while cements and autos also witnessed a selling spree where Lucky, DGKC, MLCF and PSMC dented the index the most. Further UBL and Engro Corp closed 4.23pc and 1.23pc higher, respectively, after posting robust earnings and dividends higher than industry expectations.

Sectors painting the benchmark index in red included Oil and Gas Exploration sector (89.97 points), cement sector (81.19 points) and textile composite sector (55.65 points).

The technology and communication sector lost 2pc from its total market capitalisation. Systems Ltd (2.88pc), Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd (2.24pc) and Avanceon Ltd (3.81pc) all closed in negative.

National Clearing Company of Pakistan data on Thursday showed companies sold stocks worth $5.142m followed by mutual funds $3.201m and foreigners $0.541m. However, individuals were active and bought equities worth $6.562m.

The trading volume declined 15pc to 328.9m shares from 387.9m shares and the traded value also declined by 18pc to $103.5m as against $126.3m.

Ghani Global Ltd, TRG, Worldcall, Unity Foods and Telecard contributed 38pc to the overall turnover.

Arif Habib Ltd in its report said the E&P, cement, steel scrips contributed the most to the decline, whereas banking sector stocks saw pick up. Stocks that contributed positively to the index include UBL (56 points), HBL (45 points), Engro Corp (27 points), BAFL (11 points) and BAHL (8 points). Scrips that contributed negatively include OGDC (40 points), MCB Bank (29 points), PPL (26 points), System Ltd (25 points) and Lucky Cement (20 points).

Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2021