KARACHI: Pakistan equities extended losses on Monday amid increasing political noise. Benchmark KSE 100 index shed 411.71 points or 0.88% to close at 46,465 level.
Anxiety over foreigners selling and domestic politics prevailed at the bourse as Tahir-ul-Qadri announced his arrival in Pakistan on Wednesday stating that he will demand justice for Model Town incident while former PM Nawaz Sharif also announced cavalcade from Islamabad to Lahore on G.T Road.
The political developments dampened the mood at the bourse which resulted in lower volumes in wider market with only 240 million shares exchanging hands on KSE All Index, down 30% from last week’s average.
All major sectors including Oils, Financials, and Cements closed lower on limited institutional interest while much of the day’s volumes was focused in mid and small cap names where retail favorites to the likes of BOP, KEL and TRG dominated volumes chart.
Stocks including LUCK (-2%), HUBC (-1.6%), PAEL (-5%), DAWH (-2.9%) and UBL (-1.2%) contributed 139 points to index decline whereas SNGP (+2.2%), PSO (+0.8%) and COLG (+3.4%) added 39 points to the index level.
PAEL, remained one of the top volume leaders and also closed at the lower limit on concerns of weaker 2Q2017 financial results. Traded volumes were 30% down to 241 million shares whereas traded value was down 24% to Rs10.2bn/US$97 million.
Shares of 394 companies changed hands at the bourse out of which 100 advanced, 281 declined and 13 remained unchanged.
“See selective interest to prevail and increased volatility tomorrow with participants tracking both institutional flows and news flow on domestic politics to gauge market direction”, an analyst at Elixir Securities commented.
