KARACHI: The benchmark KSE-100 index of the Pakistan Stock Exchange fell below the key support level of 48,000 points on Thursday as investors further trimmed their position in the rollover week.

Investors’ fears were exacerbated as noises got louder over the possibility of early announcement of the Panama Papers case. The index traded between an intraday high of 129 points and low of 555 points.

“Thursday’s closing signalled a bearish crossover, with the 10 EMA (exponential moving average) slipping below 50 EMA on daily charts, which was last seen back in August 2015,” Topline Securities said.

Across-the-board selling was witnessed on Thursday, with Habib Bank falling 1.7pc, Hub Power Company 1.9pc, Lucky Cement 1.2pc, United Bank 1pc and Kohinoor Textile 4.6pc, eroding 169 points from the index.

Oil stocks came under pressure in the second half of the session. Pakistan Oilfields dropped 1.32pc and PPL lost 0.50pc. However, Mari Petroleum jumped 5pc and Oil and Gas Development Company gained 1pc.

The volume of shares traded during the day fell by 11pc to 272 million shares and the trading value by 21pc to Rs10.8 billion. Second-tier stocks Azgard Nine, Bank of Punjab (BoP) and Jahangir Siddiqui & Co Ltd were the volume leaders.

Big tobacco continued to attract investor interest with Philip Morris Pakistan rising 3.9pc and Pakistan Tobacco 1.1pc despite the broader sell-off.

Analyst Arhum Ghous at JS Global said the BoP closed negative as it announced its 2016 results posting earnings per share of Rs3.13 and announcing right shares at 70pc at a premium of Rs2 a share.

Ahsan Mehati at Arif Habib Corporation stated that the stocks fell sharply lower on institutional profit-taking in the post-earnings season. Investor concerns over outcome of regulatory actions on non-compliant brokerage firms and leverage product issues played a catalyst role in the bearish close.

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2017