The sentiment has stayed depressed on the share market, shedding another 100 points with a slight improvement in the trade turnover on Thursday, mainly hit by the persisting political uncertainty. The LSE-25 Index finished the session at 3,723.64 points as against previous day's 3,826.58 points, registering a decline of 102.94 points.
The daily average turnover, with an increment of 2.424 million shares, reached 13.415 million from 10.990 million shares. The market painted a very dismal picture amid lack of support from institutions, which are on sidelines. In addition to political uncertainty, which doesn't seem to end in the near future, the people are also much perturbed over NAB action against former officials of the Bank of Punjab (BoP).
The NAB authorities reportedly arrested five BoP ex-senior officials the other day, which also concerned the market people, brokers said. The market needs support from big players, especially from the institutional side to take a positive turn, a broker said.
The deadlock over the issue of judges has badly affected the market sentiment and the KSE index has lost around 3500 points in last three months, said Javed Iqbal, chief executive, Javed Iqbal Securities Limited. Because of this issue, the government has also not been able to give any clear economic policy, which has worried not only the stock people, but also the entire business community of the country, he added. "Personally, I understand that the issue of judges is the major issue, which needs to be resolved immediately", he added.
Until and unless it is resolved once for all, the market will hardy get on track, he added. "Fresh devaluation of the market has not only caused losses to brokers and investors, but also the government," he pointed out. Investors are nervous about the market outlook and fear further deterioration in the political situation. If this state of affairs continues and no breakthrough is achieved over the issue of judges, the market cold undergo more losses and volume, which is already much below the mark, could further shrink, Javed Iqbal feared.
When the closing bell rang, there were only four gainers against 58 losers with 35 unchanged, of total 97 active scrips. In positive column, Nimir Industrial Chemical was up 9 paisa, Southern Electric Power 8 paisa, while Hub Power Company and Sui Southern shed 5 paisa each.
Among major losers, Engro Chemical lost Rs 14.45, Adamjee Insurance Rs 14.05, MCB Bank Rs 13.82, Attock Refinery Rs 12.40, and Pakistan Oilfields Rs 11.00. NIB Bank and Arif Habib Securities led the proceedings in terms of turnover with 2.459 million and 1.682 million shares.
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