KARACHI -  Bears took back the control of stock market on Friday due to rumors of foreign selling, with the benchmark index falling by 353 points to close at 39,781.95 points. Volatility prevailed on the last trading day of the week as the index closed in red zone.

PTC (down 2.22%) remained under pressure throughout the day after the company refuted rumors that any discussion regarding sale of Etisalat’s stake has taken place. DCL (up 5.00%) hit its respective limit up as the company announced that it will allow due diligence to be carried out by a strategic Chinese investor. The automobile sector remained under pressure on the back of appreciating Yen, where top index movers of the sector were INDU (down 1.32%) and HCAR (1.64%). News that ECC approval is being sought by the Ministry of industries and production to cut price of imported urea from Rs 1,310/bag further exacerbated the misery of local producers as a surplus of the commodity looms. Biggest laggards of the aforementioned sector were ENGRO (down 3.37%) and FFC (2.65%), observed analyst Ahmed Saeed Khan.

Volumes declined by 23% to 505m shares while value declined by 31.7% to Rs6.7b/$111m.

Concerns in oversupply in fertilizer sector combined with rumors of foreign selling led ENGRO and FFC to decline by 3.3% and 2.5%, respectively.

Profit taking was observed in engineering stocks like ISL and ASTL which rallied in the past week. Stocks declined by 2.3% and 1.2%, respectively.

DCL, through a KSE notice, announced that it has received interest by Chinese investors for acquisition of its shares which led the stock to close at its upper limit of 5%, said dealers at Topline brokerage. As the futures rollover week starts next week, the analyst expect that volatility in the market will persist.