KARACHI: Shares continued to tumble on Wednesday with the KSE-100 index conceding another 193 points, or 0.40 per cent and closing at 47,636.

Investors had one eye on the dollar as it surged to 11-month high at Rs166.20 in intraday trading, triggering concerns over a major jump in raw material prices and the cost of production. Investors who were hoping for a rally in cement and steel stocks were shaken by Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin who stressed on the producers to provide cement and steel at “affordable prices” to carry forward the momentum of economic recovery.

There was no let-up in the lingering worries over the fourth Covid wave as the country reported the highest active cases since April 29. The ongoing rollover week also discouraged investors from taking fresh positions as traders said the expiry of the August futures contract showed open interest at a high Rs17.23bn.

The total DAP fertiliser offtake during July was recorded at 193,000 tonnes, registering a decrease of 22.9pc over offtake of 251,000 tonnes in July. Moreover, the delay in proposed refineries’ policy, which was expected to give major uplift to the sector and attract FDIs also dented investors’ sentiments.

With negative news flow inundating the market, the receipt of $2.75bn from IMF under recently revised SDR allocation by the fund that was taking reserves to new high could not cheer up the investors.

After an initial recovery to intraday high by 88 points, the share prices started to fall with index reaching intraday low by 211 points. Profit booking was seen mainly in cement, fertiliser, technology and oil & gas chain.

Exploration & production stocks dipped for the second day with OGDC and PPL in the red.

Stocks that contributed negatively to the index included PSEL (35 points), Lucky Cement (21 points), TRG (15 points), DGKC (15 points) and MLCF (13 points).

The trading volume declined 3pc over previous session to 384.6m shares. WorldCall topped the list with change of hands in 38m shares.

Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2021