KARACHI: Stocks continued their south-bound journey with the KSE-100 index declining by another 131.32 points (0.42 per cent) and closing the session at 31,433.89.

The market displayed lack of investors’ appetite as it tumbled to intra-day low by 293 points.

There was no plug on foreigners’ sell-off as they dumped equity worth $2.76 million. However, companies were the major spoilers of the market sentiment as they went out on all round profit taking through sale of $5.47m shares.

On the local front, government struggle to ease circular debt and the Finance Ministry briefing stipulating various options to ease the debt did not enthuse investors. Sentiments also dampened after the Asian Development Bank revised down growth expectation for FY20 to 2.8pc.

Market watchers said that despite decline in cut-off yields in Wednesday’s T-bill auction, 3M, 6M and 12M T-bills coming down by one basis point, 9bps and 8bps respectively driven lower by a number of possible positive economic data and expectation of slowing inflation number, investors were not attracted to risky equity markets.

Volumes increased further from 104.7m shares to 124.2m shares (up 19pc day-on-day). Traded value, on the contrary, declined by 15pc to reach $22.6m against $26.7m. Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included: K-Electric, Worldcall Telecom, Maple Leaf Cement Factory, Amreli Steel Ltd and Bank of Punjab, which formed 49pc of total volumes.

Banks, which contributed 55 points to the index downside, were the heaviest losers where Bank Al Falah Ltd was down 2.6pc, Habib Bank Ltd 2.5pc, Meezan Bank Ltd 1.0pc and United Bank Ltd 0.3pc closed in the red.

Mixed sentiments were seen in the cement sector, where D. G. Khan Cement was up 2.4pc, MLCF 4.4pc, Pioneer Cement 1.5pc closed in the green whereas Lucky Cement 0.7pc and Fauji Cement Company Ltd 0.1pc were laggards.

Cement stocks remained in limelight during the day after appointment of new All Pakistan Cement Manu­facturers Association chairman. Major drag to the index was attributable also to losses in Engro Corporation, down 2.14pc, Hub Power Company 2.42pc and Searle Company 3.89pc.

Published in Dawn, September 27th, 2019