KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed intense bearing trend as the benchmark KSE-100 index shedded nearly 1,000 points on Tuesday.
Investors reacted with panic to the depreciating Pakistani rupee against the US dollar and the uncertainty that surrounded the country’s political arena after the Punjab by-elections.
The market opened at 41,367.11 points but it plunged by 978.04, or 2.36%, points to close at 40,389.07 points — a 20-month.
It bears mentioning that the global money lender has expressed its willingness to deal with a caretaker government if the country goes to the polls, but that would mean a delay in the disbursement of the $1.17bn in funds that were to follow a nod by the IMF Board.
With a delay in the release of the funds, the country’s foreign exchange reserves will deplete further.
Overall trading volumes rose to 194.86 million shares compared with Monday’s tally of 151.35 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs5.78 billion.
Karachi-Electric was the volume leader with 19.6 million shares traded, closing at Rs3.02 as the price fell by Rs0.03. It was followed by Worldcall Telecom Limited with 17.6 million shares traded, losing Rs0.11 to close at Rs1.25 and Cnergyico PK Limited with 9.96 million shares traded, losing Rs0.16 to close at Rs5.02.
