Staff Reporter
Karachi
Bears staged a comeback at the bourse on Wednesday as the benchmark KSE-100 index shed nearly 140 points. This was amid a lack of positive triggers and an uncertain political and economic outlook. The KSE-100 endured a range bound session, which ended on a bearish note, ahead of the visit of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission to Pakistan.
The downtrend was further fuelled by rising coronavirus cases, domestically and globally, which dampened investor confidence, and selling pressure dragged the index down. Profit-booking pushed the market further into the red.
A surge in international crude oil prices failed to lift local investors’ sentiment in the exploration and production sector.
Earlier, the index started falling from the moment trading began and continued to slip throughout the trading session. At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded a decrease of 138 points, or 0.34%, to settle at 40,514.67 points.
Arif Habib Limited, in its report, stated that the market had a range bound session and it was on a downtrend in contrast with Tuesday’s performance. Sectors contributing to the market performance included exploration and production (-51 points), cement (-24 points), oil and gas marketing (-17 points), fertiliser (-16 points) and food (-10 points). Individually, stocks that contributed positively to the index included MCB (+15 points), TRG Pakistan (+12 points), International Steels (+6 points), Meezan Bank (+6 points) and Fauji Fertiliser (+5 points).
