KARACHI: Stocks remained under pressure throughout the trading session on Monday with the KSE-100 index finishing off at a loss of 290.89 points or 0.59 per cent at 48,680.16.

Investors decided to skid out at the start of the rollover week. Jitters over the outcome of the Panama Papers case also resurfaced.

According to Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corp, stocks closed lower on pressure in oil, banking and cement shares after a major fall in global equities. Weak crude prices, reports about surging circular debt, falling exports and the status quo in the policy rate announcement last Saturday played a role in the bearish close.

Volumes declined 33pc over the previous session to 238m shares while the traded value rose 8pc to Rs10.4 billion.

Bank of Punjab clocked in 27m shares or 11.3pc of the aggregate volume. The next four volume leaders – Aisha Steel, K-Electric, Dewan Salman and Azgard Nine – cumulatively contributed 62m shares or 26pc of the volume.

Dealers at Topline Secu­rities said Pakistan State Oil, Pakistan Petroleum, Pakistan Oilfields and Mari Petroleum tumbled by 2pc, 1.3pc, 1.9pc and 2.5pc, respectively, as uncertainty over the effectiveness of extending the Opec deal in the wake of US and Russian resilience exerted pressure on oil prices.

Other analysts noted that profit-taking was seen in The Searle Company and United Bank, which lost 2.85pc and 0.76pc, respectively. Sui Northern Gas Pipelines 1.6pc, Packages Ltd 1.7pc and Habib Bank 0.18pc added 26 points to the index.

Negative sentiments were witnessed in the banking sector. In the automobile sector, Pak Suzuki lost 1.57pc to close in the red as reports emerged about the company’s possible rollback of expansion plan.

Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2017