KARACHI: Trade remained choppy at the stock market where the index remained in search of direction for the entire session. Investors were torn between the greed to amass blue chips at available valuations and the fear of a market collapse on extremely-charged political atmosphere.
The KSE-100 index closed slightly bruised by 13.53 points (0.03 per cent) at 42,101.78. The benchmark moved in the range of intra-day high and low by 119 and 167 points.
Investors remained mostly to the side-lines as the opposition’s alliance was slated to take important decisions later in the day, the significant of them being the decision to resign en masse from the parliament. Many analysts thought such an eventuality could trigger a constitutional crisis.
Other events that dampened investors sentiments was the opposition’s rallying cry of holding a massive demonstration in Lahore on Dec 13, regardless of the hike in Covid-19 cases. The dark clouds gathering on the horizon over the neighbouring Muslim countries also was thought to cause further jitters and a serious destability in the region. Global markets remained under pressure over threats to economic recoveries.
Foreign investors continued to skip out of the Pakistan stocks selling them worth $0.83 million on Tuesday. Major support to the market was provided by insurance companies that took fresh positions of $2.33m.
Traded volumes increased 8pc over the earlier day to 410m shares while traded value was 3pc up to reach $115.4m. Maple Leaf was the volume leader with 32m shares traded. Technology and cement sectors remained under the spotlight. Netsol in the technology again hit the upper circuit. While cements performed well in initial hours but retreated latter in the day. Banks were down mainly due to foreign selling.
International crude prices showed no major change which kept exploration & production stocks in the red.
Scrips that were major drag on the market included Pakistan Petroleum, Oil and Gas Development Company, Pakistan State Oil, Searle, Shell Pakistan, Pakistan Oilfields, Systems, Fauji Fertilizer and Attock Refinery.
Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2020