Stocks closed flat on Thursday with the KSE-100 index shaved off by 1.90 points at 31,779.75.
It was a volatile session with the index rising past the 32,000 points intra-day, but with consistent sell-off the index lost all of the day’s gains. Turnover in terms of volume declined while trading value improved, suggesting that the investors’ inclination was towards first-tier stocks.
Foreign investors were active in the market with gross purchases valued at $11.52 million and gross sell at $23.36m to show net portfolio outflow at $11.84m.
While banks, companies, mutual funds and individuals stayed on the sidelines, non-banking financial institutions (NBFIs) mopped up $10m worth stocks, so as to mitigate some of the negative impact of foreign sell-off in the market.
“The investors experienced mood swings in tandem with news flow on the political front,” said a broker.