Index sheds 536 points as investors sit on the fence
KARACHI: Bears ruled the roost on the stock market on Monday where the KSE-100 index continued to bleed throughout the session.
After going down by 630 points, the index bounced back slightly to close at a loss of 536.03 points or 1.09 per cent while crashing through the barrier of 49,000 points at 48,655.72.
With investors deciding to stay on the sidelines, the volume fell to its lowest level since July 4, 2016. The volume stood at 133 million shares against 183m shares traded on Friday while the trading value dipped to Rs7.219 billion from Rs9.763bn.
Investors preferred to take profit and move to the sidelines as sentiments were affected by a host of unfavourable factors. Uncertainty over the Panama Papers case was beginning to get on the nerves of investors.
It was exacerbated by the regulator’s crackdown on brokers to prevent defaults and stem market abuses. Meanwhile, international oil prices continued to tumble to their lowest in three months at $49.7. This led to a fall in energy stocks, such as POL 4.1pc, OGDC 2.3pc, PPL 2.0pc and PSO 1.6pc, which eroded 126 points from the index.
A total of 14 stocks closed on their upper circuits while 28 scrips hit their lower limits. The steel sector witnessed renewed interest on the back of reports that the Lahore High Court declined to grant a stay order in favour of steel importers. Consequently, International Steel 2.9pc and Aisha Steel 3.6pc managed to close in the green.
Analyst Arhum Ghous at JS Global stated that banking sector heavyweights closed in the red zone, such as MCB 0.97pc, UBL 1.95pc and HBL 0.28pc.
DG Khan Cement, Maple Leaf Cement, Pak Suzuki and Honda Atlas Cars decreased 1.54pc, 2.48pc, 1.94pc and 1.46pc, respectively.
Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2017