KARACHI: Pakistan stocks plunged by 777 points on Friday owing to reasons including Pakistan Rupee (PKR) devaluation and political unrest.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 43,030 points as against previous day’s closing of 43,807 points, showing a decrease of 777 points.
READ MORE: Equities slip by 168 points in range bound trading
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that bloodbath session was witnessed today due to political unrest and devaluation of PKR against dollar.
In the first session, dull session was observed. In the second session, across the board selling was observed due to last working day of the week. Moreover, foreign activity was witnessed today due to FTSE rebalancing.
READ MORE: Pakistan stocks gain 256 points on easing oil prices
Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (-158.3 points), Technology (-150.3 points), E&P (-140.4 points), Cement (-113.1 points) and OMC (-54.3 points).
Volumes increased from 148.5 million shares to 180.4 million shares (+21.5 per cent DoD). Traded value also increased by 113.4 per cent to reach US$ 35.4 million as against US$ 16.6 million.
READ MORE: Pakistan equities gain 353 points as oil prices ease
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include WTL, GGL, KEL & PAELR3
Analysts at Topline Securities said that pressure was observed in the market on last trading session of the week, which can largely be attributed to increase in political noise where few members of the ruling party have expressed that they may vote against the PM in the upcoming no confidence vote.
READ MORE: Pakistan stocks shed 286 points on political unrest
Apart from this FTSE rebalance (SNGP, KAPCO and FCCL are excluded from FTSE Small Cap Index) added further pressure in last hours of trading, as the index declined to settle at 43,030 level (down by -1.77 per cent).
