KARACHI: The bearish spell entered its third day on the stock market on Friday amid intensified selling pressure ahead of an NCOC meeting which later in the day announced measures to check the spread of the third wave of Covid-19.

The benchmark KSE-100 index made an intraday low of 566 points at 44,363, but the mid-session buying hel­ped it recover partially closing the day with a loss of 223 points, or 0.5 per cent, at 44,706.76.

Arif Habib Ltd in its report said the market declined further again in anticipation of a lockdown at the national level that caused investors to adopt a cautious approach and avoid taking new positions.

Despite gloomy conditions in the wake of the Covid pandemic, mutual funds remai­ned busy in lifting shares worth $4.26 million followed by foreigners who bought equities worth $2.55m, showed data released by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan on Friday. Kot Addu Power announced financial results which had little impact on its stock price due to non-declaration of dividend against market expectation.

O&GMCs, E&P, cement and steel sector stocks saw selling pressure induced by institutional investors.

Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P (54 points), chemical (40 points), fertilizer (38 points), power (32 points) and textile (28 points).

The trading volumes declined 27pc to 240.5mn shares from 328.9m shares and the traded value also declined by 26pc to reach $76.6m as against $103.5m.

Among scrips, Ghani Global Ltd topped the volumes with 38.7 million shares, followed by Worldcall Ltd (24.1m shares) and TRG (23.6m shares), forming 43pc of the total turnover.

Stocks that contributed positively to the index incl­ude TRG (49 points), HabibMetro Bank (30 points), AICL (15 points), NBP (12 points) and PSX (5 points).

Scrips that contributed negatively include OGDC (31 points), Colgate (31 points), Hubco (27 points), Engro Corp (16 points) and Habib Bank (12 points).

Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2021