Market watch: Selling pressure drags index further in red

Benchmark index decreases 580.77 points to close at 40,143.63

KARACHI: There was no respite for the stock market as persistent selling pressure continued to drag the index lower, pushing it over 600 points down in intra-day trading on Friday.

Uncertainty over outcome of Pak-IMF performance review and concerns over ongoing foreign outflows weighed heavily on investor sentiment thus, fuelling bearish trade.

After a brief upward open, the KSE-100 maintained a steady decline south amid selling pressure in many index-heavy sectors.

At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded a decrease of 580.77 points, or 1.43%, to settle at 40,143.63.

JS Global analyst Maaz Mulla said that the nightmare for equities continued; where the index managed to make an intra-day high of 145 during the first half of the trading session, however, closed yet again in the negative territory.

"Aggressive selling was seen in the market by foreign and local institutions as bond yields picked up further in Monday's trading session."

Overall market volume leaders were MLCF (-5.3%), LOTCHEM (-6.1%) and UNITY (-6.9%), cumulatively exchanging 53 million shares throughout the day. Major stocks that pulled down the index were HBL (-1.7%), PSO (-4.5%), HUBC (-1.4%), DAWH (-2.5%), BAFL (-3.1%), OGDC (-1.3%) and MARI (-2.6%).

Cement sector came under the hammering belt where LUCK (-0.6%), DGKC (-5.8%), MLCF (-5.3%), PIOC (-2.2%), FCCL (-5.8%) and CHCC (-3.7%) were the major losers from the sector.

"We expect market to remain sideways in the short-term on the back of political uncertainty front, the on-going IMF talks and FATF review later this month," he added.

Overall, trading volumes decreased to 193.5 million shares compared with Thursday's tally of 127.8 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs6.8 billion

Shares of 355 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 47 stocks closed higher, 291 declined and 17 remained unchanged.

Maple Leaf Cement was the volume leader with 21.5 million shares, losing Rs1.23 to close at Rs21.81. It was followed by Lotte Chemical with 17.4 million shares, losing Rs0.90 to close at Rs13.92 and Unity Foods with 14.4 million shares, losing Rs0.94 to close at Rs12.66.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs184.38 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.