Bearish spell sets in on stock market
KARACHI: Stocks fell for the fourth consecutive session on Wednesday. The KSE-100 Index succumbed to selling pressure after the sentiment dampener MSCI semi-annual review was unveiled a day earlier.
The KSE-100 opened gap down, carrying Tuesday’s negative momentum, but managed to recover some ground and closed with loss of 281 points (0.69 per cent) at 40,663.
Significant investor interest and activity centered on Engro which was pushed out from the MSCI EM. The stock of the fertiliser-to-food giant was the volume leader on Wednesday as more shares were churned out after a quick lower lock on the stock in opening hours.
Major sellers of overall equity on Wednesday were again the jittery mutual funds that disposed of stocks worth $7.10 million. Foreign funds also cut down their positions with outflow of $5.06m, which some analysts ascribed to sell-off in Engro. Yet individuals scooped up stocks at lower valuations, which included Engro. As a result, the stock as a result bounced back to close down by 2.2pc.
Quick changes on the political landscape also commanded investor attention. “Meanwhile news of super tax imposition on banking sector resurfaced, denting investor sentiments and resultantly banks were down as well,” stated dealers at Topline Securities.