Pakistan stocks dip 200 points on political uncertainty

Pakistan stocks dip 200 points on political uncertainty

KARACHI: Pakistan stocks declined by 200 points on Friday due to political uncertainty and high commodity prices.

The benchmark KSE-100 index closed at 43,653 points as against previous day’s closing of 43,853.62 points, showing a decrease of 200 points.

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Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that range bound session was observed today due to political unrest and overheated commodities cycle.

Market opened in the green zone and stayed volatile throughout the day.

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Main board activity remained gloomy. On the flip-side, activity continued to remain side-ways as market witnessed hefty volumes in the 3rd tier stocks. In the last trading hour, across the board selling was witnessed.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Commercial Banks (-43.0 points), E&P (-42.0 points), Cement (-40.1 points), Power (-30.0 points) and OMC’s (-19.5 points).

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Volumes decreased from 271.9 million shares to 149.3 million shares (-45.1 per cent DoD). Traded value also decreased by 29.7 per cent to reach US$ 29.5 million as against US$ 42.0 million.

Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include TPLP, PAELR3, TPL, UNITY and FLYNGR1.

Analysts at Topline Securities said that range bound activity was observed at the exchange today during the first trading session, as the index juggled between positive and negative zone.

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However pressure was observed in the second half of trading session, as investor preferred to reduce their exposure in the market before the weekend given ongoing local political uncertainty and volatility in commodity prices on the backdrop of Russia Ukraine armed conflict.