KARACHI: The Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) 100-index lost 258.98 points to stand at 29681.29 points and volume of 86,490,530 shares on last day of trading, Friday, as the routine life in Karachi came to a halt after MQM chief Altaf Hussain asked his workers to stage sit-ins across the city following the arrest of workers.
Earlier, 100-index witnessed fluctuation in trading as the market opened with a positive trend, adding 50 points but shed 86 points and reached the stage of 29854 till 12:30pm. After that market kept on losing points and lost 258 points at the end of the trading day.
The highest increase witnessed in price of the Fauji Cement, Telecard Limited, Jah.Sidd. Co, Engro Corporation while the UniLever Pak, Siemens Pakistan, Shield Corporation and Millat Tractors Ltd remained the biggest losers of the day.
As a whole 26.45 per cent of companies witnessed increase in their shares while 33.39 per cent lost their share value and 2.98 per cent companies remained stable.
Financial experts said that circular debt in energy sector played a catalyst role in bearish activity at KSE despite reports of rising private sector credit data. “Also the political unrest which now grappling the Karachi as MQM also started protests, affected the confidence of shareholders badly,” they added.
On the other hand, government on Thursday issued a whitepaper on Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) performance in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa for the past 14 months. The PML-N MNA Marvi Memon presented the paper titled ‘A Great Betrayal in the Name of Change’, which compares the performance of the PML-N government in Punjab and PTI government in K-P.
Moreover, the stalemate over the resignations of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) legislators from the National Assembly continued as none of the three PTI members appeared before the NA speaker to verify their resignations in his chambers. It is now with the NA speaker to reject or accept the resignations.
