KARACHI: Stocks broke their winning streak on Tuesday, which appeared rather surprising given that it was the first trading day after the much-awaited MSCI upgrade to the Emerging Market status.

The KSE-100 index took a steep dip of 575 points (1.10 per cent) to close at 51,813. But early on the index extended the gains to represent intraday rise of 459 points. After touching new all-time high, the index succumbed to heavy selling pressure and fell by 634 points intra-day.

The volume was up 7pc over the earlier day to 378 million shares and the traded value rose 1.3pc to Rs23.4 billion. EPCL was the volume leader with 42m shares.

Profit-taking was witnessed in large- and middle-cap stocks that are constituents of MSCI EM. HBL dropped 3.34pc, MCB 3.02pc, UBL 2.62pc, ENGRO 2.60pc, LUCK 2.24pc and OGDC 1.97pc taking away 424 points.

Subsequently, fresh entra­nts managed to garner investor interest with EFERT gaining 1.65pc, HCAR 0.12pc, ISL 2.08pc, DGKC 0.68pc SHEL 2.93pc, SNGP 2.7pc and THALL 4.65pc.

Sector-wise, banking scrips led the decline, which eroded 294 points from the index. Profit taking was witnessed in fertilizer as the sector heavy weights, FFC lost 3.28pc and FFBL 0.67pc, closing in the red zone.

However, E&P continued its previous day momentum as crude oil prices rose. POL added 1.55pc and PPL 0.55pc, said analysts at JS Global.

Intermarket Securities report stated that from the sector perspective, banks were the worst affected with autos, cements, fertilisers, glass, oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, power and textile following close behind.

Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2017