KARACHI: Stocks plun­ged for the sixth straight day, knocking off 223 points, or 0.49 per cent, from the KSE-100 index which barely managed to retain the support level of 45,000 and close at 45,074.

The six-day losing spree has wiped off 1,846 points, or 3.95pc, from the index.

The market followed the usual trend; stock prices climbed in the early trade to carry index to intraday high by 127 points, followed by selling a spree that saw the index lose all the gains and dip to intraday low by 436 points regaining some of the lost ground in the end.

Traders extended the same old reasons for the market slump. Geopolitical tensions, SBP interest rate hike by 25 bps to 7.25pc, the widening current account deficit with upward spiral in imports, major devaluation of the rupee, soaring inflation numbers and concerns over meeting with the IMF in October.

Sector-wise, automobile assemblers and textiles lost values but the major bane of trading was the index heavyweight technology sector where principal stocks NetSol tumbled to hit lower circuit while AVN also was significantly down.

As even the whisper of a new Refinery Policy 2021 died down, the refinery sector shares took fresh beating in the lead of Attock and National Refinery. Some upward movement in the international crude oil prices enabled the long losing E&P sector to show slight recovery in OGDC, PPL and POL.

The decade-high international coal prices continued to dent cement shares were Flying, Cherat, Maple Leaf, Pioneer.

DG Khan saw further price pruning. Banking sector also observed selling pressure with big banks MCB, MEBL, HBL, and UBL closing in the red.

Stocks that contributed negatively to the index included TRG (26 points), MCB Bank (26 points), CHCC (19 points), Indus Motor (18 points) and FFBL (13 points). The trading volume declined 17pc over the previous day to 369.5m shares. Volume leader was WorldCall Telecom with 370m shares changing hands. The trading value also declined by 5pc to $69.7m.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2021