KARACHI: Stocks ope­n­ed weak and continued to fall all through the day with KSE-100 index reaching intra-day low by 400 points.

The market closed with a loss of 353.45 points (1.11 per cent) at 31,555.47.

Exploration and production companies, refineries and oil marketing companies led the laggards due to slippage in international oil prices. Although, there were talks of oil spiking to as high as $100 per barrel, investors decided to book profits.

All four major stocks turned red including Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC), Pakistan Oilfields Ltd (POL), Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (PPL) and Mari Petroleum.

On the news front, International Monetary Fund (IMF) spoke plainly in telling the economic managers that the fund would not revise the economic targets already agreed with the government.

On the other hand, the National Assembly’s Stan­ding Committee expressed concerns over the IMF programme that it said had to fueled inflation and slowdown in the economic growth. That the IMF visiting team was reported to have concurred with the committee regarding uncertainty ahead triggered concerns in the minds of institutions.

Mutual Funds sold off equity worth $2.36 million and insurance companies also reduced their holdings by $1.79m but individuals were major buyers of shares valued at $3.28m. After a short spell of cherry picking, foreign investors also turned net sellers on Wednesday.

Volumes decreased 19pc over the previous day to from 99.3m shares from 122m shares. Traded value also dropped by 24pc to reach $25.4m from $33.3m shares.

Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included Worldcall Telecom Ltd, Pak Elektron, K-Elec­tric, Hascol Petroleum and OGDC, which formed 38pc of total volumes.

Cements came under the hammer with the mutual funds opting to book profits in cyclicals. Lucky (LUCK), Pioneer, Cherat and Maple leaf all ended in the red.

Scrip wise the index was dragged down by PPL down 3.2pc, LUCK 3.6pc, POL 3.6pc, OGDC 1.2pc and Habib Bank Ltd 0.7pc.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2019