Escalating pressure on the incumbent government over a no-confidence motion against the prime minister kept equities volatile, with the benchmark KSE-100 ending the session with a drop of over 100 points, its first negative finish in almost a week, while activity level improved on Wednesday.
The stock market opened the day on a negative note, as political noise kept investors on edge, pushing the benchmark index to an intra-day low of 43,975.75 (down 463 points). However, some recovery was seen in the latter part of the session.
At close on Wednesday, the KSE-100 ended with a loss of 101.14 points, or 0.23%, to finish at 44,337.56.
“Uncertainty caused by the ongoing political situation of the country dented confidence of investors who opted to stay on the sidelines,” said Capital Stake in its post-market note.
Pakistan’s political scenario has been volatile for weeks now. On Wednesday, a key ally of the government, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), announced that it was joining the opposition ahead of a no-trust vote against Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Capital Securities CEO and former director at PSX Zafar Moti, while talking to a private channel, had said that the ongoing political situation would have a negative impact not only on the market but the overall economy as well.
“The state of affairs has been impacting the market performance for the past two weeks, and it will continue to do so in the coming days,” he said, citing also a report from the Ministry of Finance that domestic political noise is impacting the economy.
On the economic front, the rupee settled at its all-time low of Rs182.64 against the US dollar.
KSE-100 gains 505 points as volume registers substantial increase
Sectors dragging the benchmark index downwards included oil and gas exploration (61.13 points), fertiliser (23.38 points), and oil and gas marketing (21.45 points).
Volume on the all-share index increased significantly to 344.14 million from 268.91 million on Tuesday. The value of shares traded also improved to Rs7.78 billion from Rs7.17 billion recorded in the previous session.
K-Electric Limited was the volume leader with 38.42 million shares, followed by Ghani Global Holdings with 31.12 million shares, and WorldCall Telecom with 19.94 million shares.
Shares of 354 companies were traded on Wednesday, of which 158 registered an increase, 169 recorded a fall, and 27 remained unchanged.