Daily Times

Massive sell-off was witnessed at Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Thursday, as benchmark KSE-100 index slumped by 882.25 points after the finance minister Dr. Abdul HafeezShaikh lost to former Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani at the Senate election.

The index dropped 1,073.15 points right after the opening bell and touched an intra-day low of 45,088.40at 9:30 am, as investors resorted to panic selling following mounting political uncertainty.

In a shocking upset, Pakistan”s Finance Minister Abdul HafeezShaikh was trounced by former premier Yusuf RazaGilani in the crucial Senate elections on Wednesday, in a major setback for Prime Minister Imran Khan who had personally campaigned for his Cabinet colleague.The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Party (PTI) had claimed that it enjoyed support of 182 members while 172 votes were needed to elect the senator.

“Yusuf RazaGilani got 169 votes while Shaikh got 164 votes. Seven votes were rejected. Total number of polled votes was 340,” the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) announced.

Despite a shocking defeat on a hotly contested seat, The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Wednesday emerged as the single largest party in Senate with 26 members, followed by Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) 20, Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) 18, BalochistanAwami Party (BAP) 12, independents 6, JamiatUlema-e-Islam Fazal (JUI-F) and MuttahidQaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM) 3 each.

Irfan Saeed, Senior Vice President,BMA Capital Management Limited noted that Thursday’s sell-off was expected, owing to mounting political instability amid Senate upset. But Mr Saeed added that the index plunge also absorbed overdue correction, and suggested that market offers buying opportunity at this level. Mr Saeed expects market to recover its losses from Monday, if PM Imran Khan succeeds in a vote of confidencedue to be held on Saturday.

The volume at Kse-100 slightly jumped from 198.94 million shares recorded in the previous session to 215.94 million shares, while the all-share volume also jumped from 403.69 million shares recorded in theprevious session to 441.5 million shares.

According to the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited foreign investors were net sellers ofworth $2.65 million worth of equities. Among local investors, Mutual Funds led the selling chart, and offloaded $21.57 million worth of equities. However, Banks and other Organizations and Insurance Companies mopped up $15.13 million, $7.46 million and $3.93 million worth of equities.

During the session, sectors which weighed down the index were Cement with 167 points, Commercial Banks with 142 points, Oil & Gas Exploration Companies with 71 points, Fertilizer with 71 points and Power Generation & Distribution with 60 points. Among the scrips, the most points taken off the index was by Lucky Cement which stripped the index of 67 points followed by TRG Pakistan with 53 points, HabibBank Limited with 35 points, Hub Power Company Limited with 34 points and United Bank Limited with 31 points.

However, sectors which weighed up the index were Synthetic & Rayon with 2 points. Among the scrips, the most points added to the index was by Colgate Pakistan Limited which contributed 22 points followed by Gatron (Industries) Limited with 2 points and Nestle Pakistan Limited with 1 point.