Karachi - Stocks on Thursday remained range-bound and the KSE 100-index fell by 73.36 points to close at 31,451.62 points.
Investor sentiment remained uncertain after Wednesday’s bloodbath as indicated by 108m shares trades. The banking sector faced selling pressure in anticipation of a rate cut of up to 50bps in the monetary policy this week. AICL dipped 4.6% following its year-end result, announcing EPS of Rs5.4 and DPS of Rs1.5, and failure to declare any bonus against the market expectations. Additionally, cement stocks posted a recovery on the back of market expectations of a discount rate cut as LUCK, FCCL, MLCF, FECTC and LPCL all increased by 1.8%, 1.2%, 2.4%, 1.2% and 2.7%, respectively, stated analyst Muhammed Mobeen. Some stability was seen in share prices today. KSE-100 index fell 0.2%. This was the fourth consecutive session of negative closing. Index has fallen 4.5% in these 4 sessions. Investors remained cautious after government action against a political party. Banking stocks fell ahead of monetary policy decision where investors expecting 50-100bps reduction in interest rate that may have negative impact on bank’s earnings. MCB was down 1.3%, UBL 1.8% and NBP 3.5% After sharp fall in last few sessions LUCK and ENGRO share price recovered today, said report of brokerage Topline Securities. Volumes remained low with 107m shares traded (value Rs6.2b/$62m) as compared to 208m shares worth of Rs11.6b/ $116m recorded on Wednesday. Out of total 348 traded companies in the session, 154 closed in advance, 167 in decline while 27 remained unchanged. Pak-Elektron was volume leader in market with 15.29 mn shares and price share Rs48.27, followed by Jah.Sidd.Co with 7.7 mn shares and price per share Rs15.02 and Maple Leaf Cement XD with 6.07 mn shares and price per share Rs51.86 were in spotlight in market.