KARACHI: Trading in the shares market remained gloomy on Wednesday owing to rising political uncertainty over the no-confidence motion against the prime minister.
According to Topline Securities, the stock market opened sideways with the benchmark dipping to an intraday low of 463 points. However, some recovery was witnessed in the second half of the session.
Standard Capital Securities said in its market commentary that Prime Minister Imran Khan seems to have lost the majority vote in parliament.
The stalemate on the political front will continue since the prime minister is not resigning, it said, adding that the stock market may well stay in its jittery mood.
As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 44,337.56 points, down 101.14 points or 0.23 per cent from a day ago.
The trading volume increased 28pc to 344.1 million shares while the traded value went up 8.4pc to $42.6m on a day-on-day basis.
Sectors that took away the highest number of points from the benchmark index included oil and gas exploration (47.24 points), fertiliser (23.92 points), oil and gas marketing (16.28 points), commercial banking (12.92 points) and investment banking (11.16 points).
Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included K-Electric Ltd (38.42m shares), Ghani Global Holdings Ltd (31.11m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (19.94m shares), Pak Elektron Ltd (18.38m shares) and Treet Corporation Ltd (15.82m shares).
Shares contributing most negatively to the index included Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (25.22 points), Fauji Fertiliser Company Ltd (16.96 points), Pakistan State Oil Company Ltd (14.95 points), MCB Bank Ltd (14.88 points) and TRG Pakistan Ltd (14.51 points).
Stocks that contributed the maximum number of points to the index included Engro Corporation Ltd (10.11 points), Bank AL Habib Ltd (9.47 points), Systems Ltd (7.93 points), International Steels Ltd (7.19 points) and D.G. Khan Cement Company Ltd (7.05 points).
Foreign investors were net sellers as they offloaded shares worth $2.93m.
Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2022