KARACHI: Replicating the performance of a day earlier, the stock market moved in directionless trade on Wednesday with the KSE-100 index finally finishing off with a loss of 133.18 points (0.33 per cent) at 40,531.42.

The market opened on a positive note and the Index escalated to intraday high by 247 points. But the rally soon lost steam as bears overpowered the tired bulls and the index sank in the red to hit intraday low by 214 points in the negative.

Individuals, who have been the leaders in the Aug-Nov rally, stampeded to book profit which swelled volume to 305 million shares, 20pc over the 254.6m shares a day earlier. With scant support from institutional players and minor selling worth $0.83m by foreign investors, the index had nowhere to go but down.

Most analysts said that the five months (July 1 to Nov 15) providing the index stellar gains of 16pc, highest by any market in the region, was perhaps too high too quick and as it stormed past the 40,000-level for the first time in nine months, the fear of an oversold market intensified investors’ nervousness. Individuals also read too much in improvement in macro numbers.

Traded value increased by 18pc to reach Rs11bn, from Rs9bn the previous day. Stocks that contributed significantly to the volume included Unity Foods, Power Cement, Pak Elektron, Bank of Punjab and K-Electric, which formed 34pc of total turnover.

Sector-wise, selling pressure was observed almost across the board, but mostly in oil and gas chains and banks, which shed 50 points. Power was dragged by 44 points, cement 28 points, autos 20 points while chemical increased by 14 points and textile 11 points.

Among scrips, Oil and Gas Development Company dec­li­ned by 1.81pc, Pakistan Pet­roleum 1.75pc, Hub Pow­er 1.41pc, Dawood Hercules 1.79pc, MCB 0.90pc, Lucky Cement 1.03pc, Engro Corp­o­ration 0.53pc, National Bank 2.11pc and United Bank 0.60pc.

Published in Dawn, December 12th, 2019