KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) fell below 86,000 on aggressive foreign selling on Thursday after reaching an all-time high supported by a successful SCO summit. The drop in the KSE 100 index was caused by rising political tensions surrounding the 26th constitutional amendment.
According to Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation, stocks closed under pressure from political noise, judicial reform uncertainty, and foreign outflows.
Investor sentiment was hurt by government actions on IPP payment and tariff issues, low crude oil prices worldwide, and delays in privatizing state-owned businesses, he said.
According to Topline Securities Ltd., the banking and E&P sectors made money by losing value, which caused the index to drop by 348 points.
The intraday high and low of the KSE 100 index were 86,520.29 and 85,539.20, respectively. However, the index fell 620.23 points, or 0.72 percent, day-to-day, to 85,585.43.
However, while the traded value decreased 19.78 percent to Rs21.61 billion, the trading volume increased 8.21 percent to 513.28 million shares.
Pakistan Refinery had 57.82 million shares traded, followed by Fauji Foods (57.32 million shares), The Searle Company (30.39 million shares), Pak International Bulk Terminal (18.86 million shares), and Pace Pakistan (17.53 million shares).
The offers enlisting the most huge increases in their costs in outright terms were Trademark Organization Ltd (Rs79.66), Rafhan Maize (Rs73.02), Siemens Pakistan (Rs63.22), Indus Engine (Rs42.85) and Premium Material (Rs28.82).
Nestle Pakistan (Rs100.00), Ismail Industries (Rs86.63), Service Industries (Rs32.40), Sapphire Textile (Rs16.33), and Pakistan Oilfields (Rs14.11) experienced the largest absolute declines in their share prices.
While banks and mutual funds became net buyers, picking up shares worth $3.65 million and $1.58 million, foreigners remained net sellers as they sold shares worth $4.81 million.
