Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) became the third-worst performing market in the region amid the boiling political temperature and melting economy.
PSX won the title of Asia’s best-performing stock market in August 2020.
A wipeout of 16.27% (Rs1.35 trillion) was witnessed by investors at the PSX in June 2021.
The total value of all listed companies (market capitalization) slumped to a multi-year low at Rs6.95 trillion on Thursday. The market capitalization peaked in June 2021 with a value of Rs8.29 trillion.
According to the Pakistan Economic Survey 2021-22, the Petroleum refinery, losing half of its value to Rs66 billion in March, was the most affected sector. The sector was valued at Rs146.56 billion at the end of June 2021.
The cement sector lost 24% of market capitalization while the automobile assemblers’ capitalization went down by 13%.
According to the survey, PSX became the third-worst performing market in Asia after dropping by 5.1% (or 2,427 points) in the first nine months (Jul-Mar) of the outgoing fiscal year and closed at 44,929 points on March 31.
According to Arif Habib Limited (AHL), PSX has dived almost 31% in dollar terms in the current fiscal year to date.
The survey said, “Pakistan stock market’s performance has posted a boom-and-bust situation during FY2022 (Jul-Mar) due to geopolitical tension, especially Russia-Ukraine conflict, and domestic political uncertainty.”
PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry took to Twitter and said that the market that was rated the best performing under PTI rule in 2020 has become the third-worst performing under the incumbent government.
