KARACHI: The market extended its losses on the last day of the week where the KSE-100 index tumbled 172.70 points (0.54 per cent) and wound up at 31,666.41.

Local bourse remained under pressure as the headline inflation figure for the month of July turned out at 10.30pc marking a six-year high and considerably above market expectations.

The proceedings in the Senate a day ago created what looked like an explosive situation on the political front, which further unnerved investors.

Most participants decided to stay the week-end on the side-lines. At the start, the index edged higher by mere three points, before investors started to dump the stocks and take refuge under the cover of risk-free investments.

Unable to withstand the selling pressure, the index went into a free-fall and hit the intra-day low by 405 points. Trading in the second session rolled back much of the losses.

Volumes shrank by 34pc to 46 million shares over the 71m shares traded in the last session with the traded value recording slight increase of 1.5pc day-on-day to $12.8m as the value hunters were inclined towards heavily discounted blue chips.

International Steel Limited (ISL) became the volume leader followed by Maple Leaf (MLCF) and Fauji Cement. Foreign inves­tors sold stocks worth $0.12m.

Sector-wise, major scrips on the exploration and production suffered a fall as international prices decli­ned. Oil and Gas Develo­pment Company (OGDC), Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (PPL) and Pakistan Oilfields Ltd (POL) closed in the red zone.

Negative sentiment was seen in commercial banks where the major laggards were Habib Bank (HBL), MCB Bank (MCB) and United Bank (UBL). Cem­ents remained generally mixed with Lucky (LUCK), Cherat and MLCF as the major movers in the sector.

Scrip-wise major losers were PPL down 2.57pc, HBL 1.69pc, MCB 1.71pc, UBL 1.53pc, National Bank of Pakistan 3.75pc, POL 1.09pc, Pakistan State Oil 2.15pc and OGDC 0.63pc for closing in red.

Stocks that contributed positively included Hub Power Company up 12 points, Nestle Pakistan 10 points, LUCK nine points, ISL five points and Packages Ltd four points.

Published in Dawn, August 3rd, 2019