KARACHI: Volatile trading on the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Tuesday ended with the KSE-100 index closing at 41,983.16 points, down 170 points (0.4 per cent) from the preceding day.

Concerns about worsening macroeconomic numbers kept investors nervous as the index slid by more than 1,000 points in intraday trading. Latest data shows imports for July increased 51pc to $4.7bn.

The drop during the first hour of trading was caused by local retail selling, said Elixir Securities, but a rebound followed later on reported domestic institutional buying.

Data released by National Clearing Company of Pakistan Ltd showed foreign investors were net sellers of equities worth $6.8 million. Local individual investors, brokers and insurance companies were also net sellers. Mutual funds, however, ended their selling streak and accumulated shares amounting to $1.4m on a net basis. Net buying by banks amounted to more than $7m.

The traded value jumped 55.7pc to Rs12.1 billion from Monday while the volume increased 41.7pc to 217m shares.

“Wider market traded briefly in the green near closing. Nonetheless, losses in cements pulled the market to settle the day marginally lower than the previous close,” it said. “We expect the index to find a footing near current levels and see a bounce-back in the coming days on institutional cherry-picking,” it added.

Calculations by Topline Securities show the top five index-point contributors were Engro Corp, which went up 1.9pc, followed by Dawood Hercules 3pc, Bank Al Habib 2.8pc, Pakistan Petroleum 1.2pc and Engro Fertilisers 2.8pc, adding 113 points cumulatively.

The cement sector continued to remain under pressure. It contributed 128 poi­nts to the index decline as cement companies have rece­ntly cut prices in the north zone. Lucky Cement dropped 3.4pc, DG Khan Cement 4.8pc, Fauji Fertiliser 3.2pc, The Searle Company 4.2pc and Hub Power 1.3pc.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2017