Pakistan stocks lose 243 points on political unrest

Pakistan stocks lose 243 points on political unrest

KARACHI: Pakistan stocks have lost 243 points on Friday owing to rising political unrest.

The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) ended at 42,150 points from previous day’s close of 42,393 points, showing a decline of 243 points.

Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that a negative session was witnessed by PSX during the day.

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The benchmark KSE-100 index started off in green, but the continuous political unrest kept investors away, causing the index to hit an intraday low of 447.04 points.

Bears took charge of the bulls during the first session and kept on driving the market during the day as investors opted to square up their positions owing to the uncertain weekend ahead due to ongoing political noise.

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Volumes in the mainboard remained decent whereas healthy volumes were observed in the 3rd tier stocks today as well.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Technology & Communication (-71.6 points), Cement (-68.2 points), Oil & Gas Marketing Companies (-19.1 points), Pharmaceuticals (-19.0 points), Food & Personal Care Products (-18.6 points).

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Volumes decreased from 161.8 million shares to 143.2 million shares (-11.5 per cent DoD). The average traded value increased by 8.7 per cent to USD 22.8 million as against USD 21.0 million.

Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes are DFML, TRG, WTL , HASCOL, PIBTL, & BGL.

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