KARACHI: After a two-day rally that added 650 points to the KSE-100 index, the stock market remained muted for much of the first session on Friday.

The index started out in the positive with intraday high by 156 points. Thereafter, the benchmark moved sideways and took a steep dive in the last half hour of the second session to finish with a loss of 306.52 points, or 0.62 per cent, at 49,210.50.

Dealers said investors liquidated their positions due to the Friday factor.

The oil and gas sector staged a retreat as technical support levels for crude oil failed. However, key refineries remained buoyant amid high gross refining margins and a robust earnings outlook. Attock Refinery was up 1.95pc and Pakistan Refinery rose 2.64pc.

“A stronger yen weighed down on the auto sector with the exception of Ghandhara twins. Pak Suzuki -0.85pc, Honda Atlas Cars -0.33pc and Indus Motor -0.06pc traded in the red while Ghandhara Industries and Ghandara Nissan closed at their upper circuits,” said analysts at Intermarket Securities.

Major contribution to the downside came from United Bank that went down 2.64pc, followed by MCB Bank -1.83pc, Hub Power -1.76pc, National Bank -2.65pc and DG Khan Cement -1.66pc.

In addition, Pakistan Pet­ro­leum -1.03pc, Habib Bank -0.48pc, Lucky Cement -0.55pc and Bank Alfalah -1.67pc also depressed investor sentiments.

On the flip side, Kot Addu Power went up 4.99pc, followed by Pakistan Tobacco 4.15pc, Glaxosmithkline 4.18pc, Pakistan Interna­tional Container Terminal 5pc and Sui Southern Gas 3.71pc.

Analyst Nabeel Haroon at JS Global said profit-taking continued in the textile sector. Gul Ahmed Textile -4.82pc and Nishat Mill -1.80pc were the major losers in the sector.

Fertilisers also closed marginally lower than their preceding day’s close even after the news that fertiliser manufacturers increased prices by Rs210 per bag for urea and Rs300 per bag for diammonium phosphate.

Published in Dawn January 14th, 2017