KARACHI: The Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) 100-index has gained 938.67 points in weeklong trading as it opened at 28567.74 points on Monday and closed at 29506.41 points on Friday. The KSE witnessed bullish trend most of the days, despite another week of sit-ins, protests, clashes and political unrest in the federal capital.
The first day of trading, however, was not that good for Karachi Stock as it lost 74 points to fall to 28,493.74 amid the tense situation after the supporters of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) chief Dr Tahirul Qadri tried to enter the Prime Minister’s House.
The market opened on a depressing note over the political turmoil and straight away lost around 300 points. Meanwhile, both Khan and Qadri have encouraged their supporters to battle on and police also resorted to teargas shells to stop the protesters’ advancement toward the Prime Minister’s House.
The stocks, however, recovered some points after the hope of peace as Khan and Qadri appealed to their supporters to remain peaceful.
The Karachi Stock Exchange’s benchmark KSE-100 on Tuesday consolidated its upward march and gained 766.55 points to reach 29260.29, defying the prevailing bleak political scenario.
On Wednesday, the Karachi Stock Exchange KSE-100 index continued its buoyant mood and added to its gains, taking the points tally to 335.26 to reach 29595.55 points as consensus between major political stakeholders to protect the parliament and democracy brought confidence in market.
The KSE-100 index, opened at 29260, kept on marching upward and taken the total trade volume to 136,300,630 shares.
Thursday, however, was not that green for the stocks and it gained only 8.75 points to reach 29604.30 mark as the government and the opposition parties in the assembly have been making frantic efforts to break the deadlock after negotiating with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT).
The KSE 100-index opened at a bearish note on Friday and went down by 97.89 points to reach 29506.41, as political strife still haunted the federal capital.
Experts were of the view that confusion prevailed in the stock market as Chinese President Xi Jinping has postponed his visit to Pakistan. “Uncertainty still hovers over the political horizon despite ongoing talks between the government and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan,” they added.
