Daily Times

KARACHI: Bloodbath activity was witnessed on Monday at Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) across the board on account of ongoing political noise.

Pakistan equities continued its losing streak heading into the new week with benchmark KSE100 tumbling by as much as 3.75 percent or 1856 points and settling near 47,500 level with domestic politics primarily denting sentiments. Market soon after the opening bell came under selling pressure as investors primarily local retail panicked and reacted negatively to the weekend news that Prime Minister Nawaz is due to appear before Joint Investigation Team on alleged corruption charges against him and family on June 15.

A great number of stocks hit their respective lower lock due to which KSE-100 index shed 1,855 points to close at 47,672 levels. Volume traded stood at 219 million shares, as compared to 209 million shares in the previous trading session. At day’s end, almost all major sectors closed lower with Index heavy Oils and Industrials denting benchmark the most.

Ali Raza of Elixir Research sees volatile trading in near-term with anxiety related to domestic politics dampening the mood and keeping local retail investors on the lookout while institutional flows will remain the most important factor going forward in guiding the market direction.

Major contributors to the KSE-100 index were Engro loosing 4.97 percent, Oil Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) loosing 5.00 percent, Habib Bank Limited HBL loosing 3.27 percent, Hubco 4.24 percent and Lucky Cement 3.76 percent, cumulatively contributed 482 points to the index.

OGDCL, Pakistan Oil Fields (POL) with 4.94 percent decline and Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) with 4.08 percent decline in the Exploration and Production (E&P) sector lost value to close in the red trajectory as well.

Commercial banks’ heavyweights, including United Bank Limited (UBL) with 3.27 percent decline, HBL and MCB Bank with 3.16 percent decline, cumulatively contributed 240 points to the index. Volume leader for the day was Wateen Telecom Limited WTL (-3.70%) with 13 million shares of the company exchanging hands. “We recommend investors to wait for clarity on the prevailing political events and stay cautious”, said JS Research’s analyst Ms Arham Ghous.