LAHORE
In wake of the uncertainty surrounding the first family, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) crumbled. However, it came as no surprise for investors. After the JIT submitted the long-awaited report against the Prime Minister and his family yesterday, the sell-off seemed inevitable.
Recommendations of the report sought filing references against the first family, aggregating the uncertainty. The opposition parties are demanding the resignation of the Prime Minister and the Supreme Court shall resume hearing on Monday July, 17. In short, the future looks blur.
The KSE 100 index opened the day lower, down over 1,500 points in the first half-hour of trading. Hitting a bottom of 44,117.17, a loss of 2,156.64 points, the index landed at 44,120.58, lower by 2,153.23 points or 4.65 per cent.
Bloodshed continued across other indices too, KMI 30 dropped 4.98 per cent, KSE All Share Index laid off 4.26 per cent and the OGTI and BKTI indices depreciated by 5.24 per cent and 5.31 per cent respectively. Only 24 scripts out of the 368 traded managed to advance on a day in which over 100 scripts plunged to lowest possible price of the day.
The market volumes cut down to 185.17 million with 56 per cent of all shares traded in the KSE 100 index scripts. K-Electric Limited (KEL -5.71pc) with 17.40 million was volume leader. The company was not spared by investor’s wrath despite unveiling US $ 1 billion power project of 900MW.
The commercial bank sector got hammered and shred 4.95 per cent of its market capitalization. Habib Bank Limited (HBL -5.00pc), United Bank Limited (UBL -5.00pc) and MCB Bank Limited (MCB -5.00pc) all floored.
The oil and gas exploration sector plummeted by 4.98 per cent. Mari Petroleum Company Limited (MARI -5.00pc), Pakistan Oilfields Limited (POL -5.00pc), Pak Petroleum Limited (PPL -5.00pc) and Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDC -5.00pc) also bled.
