KARACHI: The market managed to stem the massive bleeding seen on Thursday as banks and insurance companies scooped to pick up shares that had dropped to highly attractive levels.

The KSE-100 index recovered 54 points, or 0.1 per cent, and closed at 46,957, though still below the psychological barrier of 47,000 points. In early trade, heavy buying catapulted index to intraday high by 210 points.

Technology, fertiliser, power and small-cap stocks garnered investor interest. Mutual funds again saw offloading of shares worth $1.29 million which together with the hefty sell-off valued at $5.55m a day ago, indicated continuing run on redemptions.

The index succumbed to selling pressure in banks, cement, exploration & production and automobile sectors which wiped out all of the early gains. Mid-day, the index dipped in the red by 24 points.

The trading volume decreased by 15pc over the previous day to 465m shares and the value also dropped by 24pc to $73.3m. Among scrips, SERFR (Service Fab­rics Ltd right share) was the volume leader with change of hands in 84m shares.

Scrips that contributed positively to the index included Systems Ltd (73 points), Hubco (14 points), MCB Bank (13 points), Abbott Laboratories (10 points) and MEBL (9 points). Stocks that pulled the index down were HBL (18 points), PPL (9 points), MTL (8 points), INDU (8 points) and NBP (6 points).

On the fiscal side, tax collection numbers turned out to be encouragingly 45pc higher year-on-year for Aug­ust, SBP’s foreign exchange reserves also increased to their all-time high $20.15bn. The investors, however, remained cautious over the MSCI reclassification proposal which is scheduled to be announced on Sept 7.

Also the jump in critical Covid cases were worrisome.

Analyst Ahsan Mehanti said that the stocks showed recovery amid recovery in global equities market and surging international crude oil prices. Upbeat data on POL sales by 22pc in July-August, higher sales of cement, steel and fertiliser and encouraging S&P ratings on debt with stable outlook together with speculation on likely EU approval over GSP+ exports status for Pakistan helped to improve investor sentiments.

Published in Dawn, September 4th, 2021