KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) was witness to a bloodbath on Thursday as rising political clamour and the Habib Bank Ltd-related news from the United States brought down share prices.

Arif Habib Ltd said the PSX opened in the red zone and remained under pressure for the rest of the day while making an intra-day low of 524.31 points. Investors opted for the sidelines because of a hazy economic forecast, it added.

Bloomberg reported Pakistan’s largest commercial faces secondary liabilities in a terror financing case in the United States as the plaintiffs allege the lender aided and abetted al Qaeda terrorism in Afgha­nistan between 2010 and 2019. The bank maintains the allegations are without merit and will contest them in court.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 41,013.86 points, down 421.27 points or 1.02 per cent from the preceding session.

The trading volume decr­eased 42.2pc to 127.4 million shares while the traded value went down 31.3pc to $24m on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included K-Electric Ltd (11.16m shares), TPL Prope­rties Ltd (9.97m shares), TRG Pakistan Ltd (7.81m shares), Nishat Chunian Ltd (5.95m shares) and Fauji Cement Ltd (3.96m shares).

Sectors that contributed to the index performance were banking (-246.8 points), technology (-53 points), exploration and production (-26.8 points), chemical (-21.7 points) and fertiliser (-17.8 points).

Companies registering the biggest increase in their share prices in absolute terms were Sanofi-Aventis Pakistan Ltd (Rs49), Faisal Spinning Mills Ltd (Rs23.99), Dawood Lawrencepur Ltd (Rs7.82), Lucky Cement Ltd (Rs7) and Gadoon Textile Mills Ltd (Rs6.49).

Shares that declined the most in rupee terms were Premium Textile Mills Ltd (Rs94.53), Colgate-Palmolive Pakistan Ltd (Rs48.99), Gatron Industries Ltd (Rs24.90), Allawasaya Textile and Finishing Mills Ltd (Rs24.28) and the Mari Petroleum Ltd (Rs19.47).

Foreign investors remai­ned net sellers as they offloa­ded shares worth $4.45m.

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2022