KARACHI -  Stocks closed bearish amid institutional profit taking in oil, banking and auto stocks on pre-budget uncertainty and slump in global crude prices.

Market started on a positive note, but very quickly stocks witnessed profit booking on account of which KSE 100-index closed at 52,637 points level after declining by 232.14 points, brokers said.

Many heavyweights from the banking sector including HBL (down 2.05%), MCB (1.83%) and UBL (1.06%) contributed to the negativity in the overall market.  Oil companies also closed in the red zone on decline in international oil prices due to lower than expected output cuts by the OPEC producers on Thursday.  Prices of OGDC (down 1.48%), POL (2.10%), and PPL (1.61%) from the aforementioned sector suffered from the disappointing oil production cuts. Refinery sector flourished as opposed to the market, where ATRL (up 2.55%), PRL (1.42%) and NRL (0.75%) gained during the day, stated analyst Arhum Ghous.

Profits were also booked in other sectors including cement sector, where most stocks observed selling pressure. As a result, LUCK (down 0.94%), DGKC (0.76%) and others closed negative. Budget announcement had an unclear impact on the market, where further clarification on the effect of budget is expected to be observed in the market on the next trading day. End of roll-over week has put downward pressure on many stocks.

Support was witnessed in cement, steel sector on record PSDP commitments in the federal budget. Falling global crude prices, foreign outflows and concerns over missed economic targets in the federal budget 2017-8 played a catalyst role in bearish close, said Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp.

Overall volume increased to 413m shares compared to 409m shares of the previous day. Traded value deceased to Rs21b/$197m.