KARACHI: The stock market witnessed lack of interest in trading on Tuesday as volumes dried down to 60.2 million shares, representing lowest volume in 34 months.

Trading value dipped to nine-month low at $29m. The KSE-100 index lost another 31.39 points to settle below the 29,500 level, at 29,497.57 points.

The index remained volatile, leaving heavily on the sell side, so that it touched down to intra-day low of 117 points, but managed to claw up in closing hours of trading.

Buying by foreign investors came to a halt on Tuesday, with net outflow of $2.33m. Banks and companies in the buying zone managed to neutralise some of the impact of overseas investors’ sale.

Samar Iqbal, AVP Topline Securities, stated that the market witnessed another dull session with low volume and range-bound activity.

Cement sector remained in the limelight with business in mid size stocks, LPCL and FCCL. “The biggest stock in terms of market capitalisation, OGDC saw above average volume of 1.5m shares due to institutional activity,” Samar said.

Fahad M.Ali at JS Global thought that investors had decided to wait for buying opportunities as Monetary Policy was expected to be announced over the weekend.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp stated that investor interest in selected stocks across the board supported the index to close above session’s lows.

Impact of revised GIDC levy on textile, fertiliser sectors and concerns for SNGPL new gas load schedule in Punjab caused bearish mood.

Improved oil marketing companies’ sales data; increase in local dispatches of cement and rising textile exports helped investor sentiments.

Published in Dawn, July 9th , 2014