KSE-100 decreases over 900 points amid political volatility

Volatility on the political front dented sentiment at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) as the benchmark KSE-100 index lost over 900 points during trading on Tuesday.

At close, the benchmark index settled at 61,841.74 level a decrease of 931.98 points or 1.48%. Earlier, the KSE-100 hit an intra-day low of 61,637.62, down 1,163 points before minor recovery.

Selling pressure was more profound in index-heavy oil and gas sectors with others also feeling the heat of uncertainty.

The fall follows that of Monday when heavy selling pressure was witnessed at the PSX as the benchmark index lost over 1,000 points to settle at 62,773.72, ahead of the monetary policy announcement in which the SBP kept the key policy rate unchanged at 22%.

The development comes as political volatility rose after the trial court on Tuesday sentenced Pakistan Tehrike-Insaf (PTI) leaders Imran Khan and Shah Mahmood Qureshi to 10 years imprisonment in the cypher case.

Globally, Asian shares fell on Tuesday, hurt by the court-ordered liquidation of property giant China Evergrande while rising geopolitical tensions propped up oil prices and kept a lid on risk appetite ahead of the Federal Reserve’s meeting US Treasury yields remained under pressure in Asian hours, keeping a lid on dollar movement, after the Treasury Department said it would need to borrow less than its previous estimates.

MSCI’s broadest index of AsiaPacific shares outside Japan fell 0.32% and is down over 3% in January, on course to snap a twomonth winning streak.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee registered a marginal gain against the US dollar, appreciating 0.03% in the inter-bank market on Tuesday. As per the State Bank of Pakistan, the local unit closed at 279.55 after an increase of Re0.09 against the greenback.

Volume on the all-share index increased to 436.1 million from 317.5 million a session before.

The value of shares increased to Rs15.3 billion from Rs10.7 billion in the previous session.

K-Electric Ltd was the volume leader with 52.9 million shares, followed by WorldCall Telecom with 29.2 million shares, and Hascol Petrol at 24.7 million shares.

Shares of 346 companies were traded on Tuesday, of which 76 registered an increase, 249 recorded a fall, while 21 remained unchanged.

The index by TI, a civil society organisation working to end corruption, showed that over twothirds of countries score below 50 out of 100, “which strongly indicates that they have serious corruption problems.”