Karachi: Stocks remained under pressure on Thursday, as the KSE-100 index opened in the red and after a volatile trade it closed at 34,077.92, a loss of 254.02 points (0.74 per cent).
Investors were nervous due to the continuous selling by foreigners in the last couple of sessions.
Volume rose by 40pc to 549 million shares, one of the highest in recent days. Trading value also increased by 7.6pc to Rs13 billion.
Market participants said that local institutions were rebalancing their portfolio ahead of the year-end. Some were booking profit for window dressing their profit and loss accounts.
Analysts said that the index fell due to the decline in Maple Leaf, OGDCL and Engro Corp shares, which slipped by 4.6pc, 2pc and 1.3pc, respectively.
Sui Southern Gas and Sui Northern Gas closed at their ‘upper-circuit’ on the back of anticipated gas tariff hike in July 2015.
Analyst at a major brokerage house commented that profit-taking was seen in fundamentally strong as well as sideboard items.
Cement stocks remained subdued with DGKC, FCCL and MLCF ending 1pc, 1.5pc and 4.6pc lower, while DCL and POWER after their recent rally ended at their lower-circuit.
Profit-taking was witnessed in the oil and gas sector as PSO, POL and PPL closed down by 1.4pc, 1.2pc and 0.6pc.
Analyst Ahsan Mehanti stated that investors booked profits ahead of year-end close in overbought scrips across the board.
Concerns for economic uncertainty amid falling exports data in cement and textile sector, new slabs on capital gains tax levy from next month, higher taxes on the corporate sector approved in finance bill 2015-16, rising circular debt in energy sector were major reasons for the bearish activity.
