KARACHI: Pakistan’s benchmark KSE-100 index closed the week in red on Friday after losing another 121.28 points (0.29 per cent) at the day end to settle at 41,742.24.

The index started the session on a positive note, touching an intraday high of 42,006.03. However, it could not hold on to the gains during the second half as it stooped to an intraday low of 41,626.7 points before slightly recovering at the day’s close. The market has lost 846 points during the week.

After dragging the index downward during the last two sessions, fertiliser scrips recovered during today’s session. However, cement, commercial banks, power generation and distribution and chemicals led the decline, contributing 158 points to the downside. On the flip side, tobacco, fertiliser sector scrips closed the session at the top adding 61.77 points. However, individuals selling more than $1.72 million in select stocks took the steam away from the index during the last two hours.

The volume dropped 17pc from yesterday to 159m shares and was led by Unity Foods at 10.49m shares, Engro Polymer and Chemicals 10.46m, Bank of Punjab 8.46m Wordcall Telecom 8.44 and Lotte Chemical 7.1m, totalling 45pc of the total turnover.

Major laggards included Colgate-Palmolive, down 4.99pc, Lucky Cement 1.94pc, Mari Petroleum 0.53pc, Searle Company 2.47pc and IGI Holdings 1.38pc. On the other hand, however, the gainers were Phillip Morris Pakistan, up 4.51pc, Pakistan Tobacco 4.08pc, Bata Pakistan 2.07pc, Jubilee Life Insurance 3.84pc.

Furthermore, further drag came from foreign and local institutional sellers, who collectively offloaded $1.71m in to the market. Analysts expect the market to remain choppy guided by economic overtures from the incumbent government.

Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2018