KARACHI: The Pakistan stock market continued to suffer more losses as aftershocks of the former Prime Minister’s controversial statement kept investors in a bearish frame of mind for the fourth successive session on Wednesday. The KSE-100 index lost 158.33 points (0.37 per cent) to close at 42,301.20.

During the day, the index clawed to intraday high by 258 points before succumbing to selling pressure. The market has lost 7pc month to date and 10pc (4,843 points) since April 6 when it touched the recent intraday high at 47,144 points.

Despite attractive levels, investors opted to remain on the sidelines as major foreign selling of $2.2m worth equity raised the spectre of mutual funds which stood 90pc invested, liquidating their positions to meet resumptions.

The significant feature of the day was lacklustre trading that saw the volume at 78m shares, down 57pc over the earlier day’s 181m shares while the traded value plunged 67pc to just Rs2.9 billion, representing a 149-sessions low. Some analysts attributed the low activity to consolidation as prices had fallen to extremely attractive levels, where investors were not in a rush to sell.

Sectors contributing to the dismal performance included cement, lower by 50 points, banks 28 points, oil and gas marketing companies 17 points, exploration and production 14 points and fertiliser 14 points.

Cement sector remained under the hammer with Pioneer Cement, decreasing by 2.46pc, DG Khan Cement 1.13pc, Maple Leaf Cement 1.68pc. Steel sector also continued to be plummeted with International Steels and Mughal Steels closing in the negative trajectory.

Stocks-wise, the decliners were United Bank, down 1.48pc, Lucky Cement 1.52pc, Oil and Gas Development Company 0.90pc, Bank Al Habib 1.21pc and Engro Corporation 0.69pc, taking away 93 points.

Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2018