PSX remains jittery

Stocks remained bearish Friday because of what analysts said turmoil in global equities with US WTI crude oil prices ebbing below $30 per barrel. The week's last trading session was an upset in terms of foreign portfolio investment which marked a net selling of $4.31 million. Otherwise, net inflows for Monday-Thursday stood at $5.47 million.
The KSE-100 index added 439 more points to Thursday's 713 points loss and ended the volatile week at 31,001. The oil-heavy benchmark index moved both ways to hit the intraday high and low of 31,637 and 30,886 points.
"PSX closed sharply lower after turmoil in global equities and WTI crude oil shed 4.5 percent in the session falling below $30 a barrel," viewed Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corp.
The weeklong rout in crude prices kept taking a heavy toll on the index-heavyweight oil scrips, particularly Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC).
Having depreciated by Rs 3.41 to six-year low of Rs 100.59 a day earlier, OGDC further dipped to Rs 98.41 on Friday in 3.8 million shares trading.
"The recent drop in oil prices has triggered a selling streak in the scrip," opined Shahbaz Ashraf and Waleed Rehmani of Arif Habib Limited Research.
However, the analysts said, the market had overplayed the drop in oil prices, since 60 percent of the company's revenue was attributable to gas.
Overall, trading volume at PSX fell to 138 million shares, the value of which depreciated to Rs 6.91 billion compared to Rs 9.74 billion of last session.
Of the 331 scrips traded, only 84 could make it to the green while 230 closed in red. Rates of 17 companies stayed unchanged.
The market cap continued its southward journey to have accumulated to Rs 6.56 trillion against the previous day's Rs 6.64 trillion.
TRG Pakistan was the most-traded issue with 19.6 million volume followed by Pak Elektron, JSCL, Telecard Limited, Fauji Cement, Bank of Punjab, OGDC, PIBT, Lotte Chemical and Byco Petroleum.
More than 30.4 million futures contracts changed hands on the week's last trading day.
"Dismal data on fertilisers sales, exports and political instability amid weak earnings outlook played a catalytic role in the bearish close during the earnings season," said analyst Mehanti.