Business

Political crisis impacts Pakistan's stocks as KSE-100 plunges over 1,200 points

The stocks closed below 44,000-point

Published 3 years ago on Apr 5th 2022, 12:38 am

By Web Desk

Political crisis impacts Pakistan's stocks as KSE-100 plunges over 1,200 points

KARACHI: An intense selling pressure struck the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Monday in the aftermath of rising political uncertainty in the country as KSE-100 benchmark drops more than 1,200 points.

The rising political temperature in the country amid the ongoing constitutional crisis raised alarm in major sectors of the economy as well as the stock market, which fell below 44,000-point mark.

The benchmark KSE-100 index seesawed as investors struggled to anticipate the impact of actions being taken by the authorities in the wake of the political turmoil.

At the close, the KSE-100 index plummeted 1,250.06 points, or 2.77%, to settle at 43,902.05 points.

Sectors contributing to the performance included banks (-324.5 points), cement (-252.9 points), technology and communications (-100.6 points), exploration and production (-93.5 points) and power (-69.2 points).

Shares of 305 were traded during the session. At the close of trading, 26 scrips closed in the green, 268 in the red, and 11 remained unchanged.

Telecard Limited was the volume leader with 17.39 million shares traded, losing Rs0.57 to close at Rs13.86. It was followed by K-Electric with 16.01 million shares traded, losing Rs0.18 to close at Rs2.92, and TPL Properties with 12.55 million shares traded, losing Rs1.56 to close at Rs19.26.

Overall trading volumes plunged to 170.48 million shares compared with Friday’s tally of 389.11 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs5.49 billion.