KARACHI: Pakistan equities closed another day in red on Tuesday, down 193 points at 38,116 points level. KSE 100 Index remained lackluster with persistently low volumes traded due to lack of investors’ confidence and limited triggers. After a bearish start in the session, Index managed to recover the lost ground for a brief period but failed to sustain momentum as Exploration and Production (E&P)’s tracked the decline in international oil prices. Activity remained dull throughout the day with only 68 million shares exchanging hands in benchmark KSE-00 Index. Volume charts were led by Karachi Electric (KEL) gaining 2.93 percent, Bank Al-Habib Limited (BAHL) losing 0.69 percent, Bank of Punjab (BOP) losing 1.39 percent and Engro Polymer & Chemicals Limited (EPCL) gaining 1.65 percent. These collectively contributed nearly 30 million shares or 30 percent of the total traded volumes in the regular market. “We expect consolidation to continue in near term with benchmark KSE-100 Index moving in the range of 37,700 support and 38,600 resistance”, said Murtaza Jafar, an analyst at Elixir Research. The market started off on a fairly weak note just making a high of +14 points but soon came under the hammer going as low as -330 points. Once again Commercial Banks, Energy, Fertilizers and Cement stocks were the major laggards in today’s trading session where HBL (-2.2%), PPL (-2.3%), OGDC (-0.4%), ENGRO (-0.6%), MCB (-0.2%), UBL (-0.6%), FFC (-0.6%), LUCK (-1.4%), POL (-2.7%) and BAHL (-0.7%) cumulatively contributed -189 points towards the close. Daily traded value stood at $30 million (up 48 percent) while volume stood at 91 million (up 36 percent). Furthermore, major contribution to total market volume came from K-Electric (+2.9%), BAHL (-0.7%) and BOP (-1.4%). An equity analyst Danish Ladhani expects market to remain volatile and choppy on the back of economic and political uncertainty. Published in Daily Times, December 19th 2018.