KARACHI: Shares tumbled on the stock exchange on Monday which also marked the first day of the rollover week. After a brief surge in early hours, the KSE-100 index went into a free fall to close with a loss of 226 points or 0.47 per cent, slightly above the 48,000 resistance level at 48,013.

The trading remained volatile as the index moved between the intraday high and low by 132 and 275 points.

Besides the pressures of the roll-over week, investors were worried over the dollar’s gain against the rupee which could increase the cost of production and in turn the price of finished goods. But the major issue that kept investors worried was the outcome of the four-day FATF’s plenary session starting on the 21st to discuss Pakistan’s Post Observation Report, which is likely to be released on the 25th.

An exit from the grey list would give the market good reason to leap forward, though concerns would remain over the IMF’s 6th staff level discussions where the international lenders were said to be uncomfortable over some issues of the budget 2021-22.

On the positive side, Saudi Arabia was reported to resume its oil facility in Pakistan amounting to $1.5bn per annum that would facilitate the country’s external account position.

Sectors contributing to the negative performance included cement, banks, chemical, fertiliser, O&G Marketing companies. Scrips that were a drag on the index included Lucky Cement, PSO, MCB, Colgate Palmolive, Engro Corp which cumulatively shaved off 103 points from the index.

Automobile sector did well with Pak Suzuki up 2.6pc on the back of market talk of government planning to extend the tax relief to cars up to 1,000cc in the recently proposed Finance Bill. Regardless of hike in prices per bag of cement last week, cement shares lost values. Flying; Pioneer, D.G.K Cement; Maple Leaf and Fauji Cement took the beating.

The trading volume increased 12pc over the previous session to 839m shares while the traded value declined by 23pc to $100.8m.

Published in Dawn, June 22nd, 2021