Stocks shed 214 points on mutual fund sell-off
KARACHI: The indecisive mood of the investors witnessed in the last two sessions extended to early trade on Wednesday. The KSE-100 index opened slightly positive and crawled up to intraday high by 32 points but soon succumbed to selling pressure.
During trading, the index sank to intraday low by 329 points but managed to recover some of the ground and close with a loss of 214.02 points (0.50 per cent) below the 43,000-level at 42,993.02.
Domestic politics was the major stumbling block as allies of the ruling PTI were one after the other voicing their disapproval of the policies of the centre and threatening to break ties. It gave rise to uncertainty and although no one expected an imminent fall of the government, investors thought it prudent to book profit and stand on the sidelines until the dust had settled.
The upcoming results season and the monetary policy decision expected to be announced on Friday also kept the market under suspense. One soothing factor was the continuous buying by foreigners who picked up blue chips worth $2.21 million while mutual funds were the major sellers of shares valued at $3.17m, which a manager mused could represent some key redemptions.