Daily Times

KARACHI: Pakistan stocks closed sharply lower on Monday amid political uncertainty, weak sentiments, and the absence of triggers. The benchmark KSE 100 index fell by 487 points or 1 percent to 48,520 level.

The market remained under pressure across the board due to concerns for the outcome of regulatory action over defaulting brokerages. Weak sentiments remained in the trading session because of renewed concerns for foreign outflows, surging circular debt in the energy sector, and dismal payouts in the earnings season. Surging trade deficit, reports of falling exports and consolidation post major earning announcements at PSX played a catalytic role in the bearish close, observed Ahsan Mehanti, senior stock analyst.

Stocks carried bearish momentum from Friday and continued to slip on the lack of positive triggers while investors from institutions and the retail sector preferred to stay on the sidelines amid anxiety over domestic politics, according to analysts at Elixir Securities. They added that volumes in the wider market were embarrassingly thin with only approximately 250 million shares exchanging hands on the KSE All Shares Index vs YTD average of over 400 million shares a day.