KARACHI: Pakistan’s stock market opened the day with a fall of almost 1000 points in benchmark KSE-100 Index. This downfall was directly related to the outcome of Senate elections where the opposition alliance won against the sitting government.
KSE-100 index opened the day in negative and fell down to 45,165 points with a loss of 994 points in the first five minutes of the trade. After staying in the negative territory throughout the session the KSE-100 index closed with a fall of 882.24 points (1.91 per cent) after closing at 45,278.54 points against the previous closing of 46,160.78 points. The market went as high as 46,160.48 points during intra-day trading, while recorded as low as 45,088.40 points.
Trading volume increased to 441.49 million shares today as compared to 403.69 million traded in the previous session, according to PSX website data. The daily traded value declined to Rs 21.23 billion from Rs 23.5 billion in the previous session, the data said.
Prime Minister Imran Khan’s decision to seek vote of confidence from the National Assembly also added to the political uncertanity. The economy is already passing through COVID-19 recession and now it may enter political disturbance phase, they added.
“Political disturbance is one big factor that leads to many factors on economic and business instability,” Mustansir Mustafa, head of research at Taurus Securities said in a phone interview from Karachi.
“It is uncertainty, that haunts investors,” Khurram Schezad, CEO Alpha Beta Core, said.
The ruling party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has suffered a major set back in the Senate election as PDM candidate Yousaf Raza Gillani defeated Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh for the Islamabad seat.
Former Prime Minister Gilani got 169 votes against 164 votes Hafeez Sheikh, with seven votes rejected. Yousaf Gilani won despite his son’s video in which he is telling lawmakers how to waste their votes.
Interestingly, the same electoral college that rejected Hafeez Sheikh, elected PTI’s Fozia Arshad on reserved women’s seat. Earlier, PPP’s Sherry Rehman and Salim Madviwala won from Sindh.
Prime Minister Imran Khan will seek a vote of confidence from the National Assembly (NA) following the loss of the Islamabad seat for Senate, for which the NA forms the electoral college.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi announced this while addressing a press conference today. Describing the victory of Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani on a general seat of Senate from the Federal Capital as a “negation of democracy,” Qureshi said that Prime Minister Imran Khan has decided to seek a vote of confidence from the National Assembly, official news agency APP
reported.
The share price of Colgate Palmolive increased by Rs 150 to Rs 2,900 while Sunrays Textile gained Rs 74.97 to Rs 1,074.58. On the other hand, Sapphire Fiber lost Rs 49 today to close at Rs 880 while Wyeth Pakistan lost Rs 32.49 to close at Rs 917.51.
