KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed immense selling pressure on Thursday due to the political situation and economic crisis and shed over 324 points in a single day.
The benchmark KSE 100-index surged in early trading and eventually reached its highest point of 44,349.27 points. The bourse plunged soon after and lost the 44,000 points level gained a day earlier. The bourse gained 324.27 points (-0.74) percent, closing at 44,111.10 points. The total volume of share was 69.388 million valued at Rs3.892 billion.
Of the 84 traded companies in the KSE100 Index 18 closed up 61 closed down, while 5 remained unchanged. Sector wise, the index was let down by Commercial Banks with 105 points, Cement with 55 points, Power Generation & Distribution with 33 points, Oil & Gas Exploration Companies with 31 points and Engineering with 31 points.
The lower bench KSE-30 index also declined by 133.19 points (0.79%) and closed at 16,708.08 points. The total volume of shares was 41.958 million. The KMI 30 index decreased by 662.36 points (-0.93%) and closed at 70,615.19 points, while the All Share Index dropped by 158.58 points (-0.53%) and closed at 29.989.23 points. The total volume of share traded were 140.941 million at the stock market.
The highest number of shares traded belonged to Ghani Global Holdings Lts (GGL) which traded 11.144 million shares. This was followed by Pak Elektron (PAEL 1.66%), K-Electric Ltd (-0.34%), and Telecard Ltd (TELE -0.69%). The number of scrips traded were 9.241 million, 7.698 million, and 7.458 million, respectively.
The political turmoil, rising economic challenges including a decline in foreign exchange reserves and delay in the IMF programme have impacted the stock. On the economic side, the Pakistani rupee (PKR) has depreciated and traded at PKR 189.25 per USD in the interbank trade.
