Bears returned to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) amid some rise in political uncertainty as the benchmark KSE-100 Index lost nearly 1,000 points during trading on Friday.
The KSE-100 remained range-bound during first half of the day, but plunged in the second half, in line with some noise on the political front.
At close, the benchmark index settled at 61,705.09, down by 988.47 points or 1.58%.
Across-the-board selling was witnessed as the index-heavy sectors including automobile assemblers, cement, chemical, commercial banks, oil and gas marketing companies, oil and gas exploration companies, refineries and pharmaceutical traded in the red.
At close on Thursday, the benchmark index had closed a volatile session on a positive note as late-session buying helped the index settle with an overall gain of 246 points to settle at 62,693.57.
Experts said the negative sentiment on Friday was led by a rise in volatility on the political front after the Supreme Court (SC) approved former prime minister Imran Khan and ex-foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s bail in the cypher case.
A three-member bench, headed by Justice Sardar Tariq Masood and comprising Justices Athar Minallah and Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, announced the verdict.
The duo has been granted bail against surety bonds worth Rs1 million each. Imran and Qureshi are currently incarcerated in Adiala Jail.
Globally, stocks were poised to eke out gains for the final full trading week of the year on Friday.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan went up 0.3% in early trade.
For the week the index is very marginally higher. Banking shares helped Japan’s Nikkei rise 0.2%. The euro poked above $1.10.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee continued its upward climb against the US dollar for the ninth successive session as it appreciated 0.09% in the inter-bank market on Friday. As per the State Bank of Pakistan, the local unit settled at 282.53 after an increase of Re0.26 against the greenback.
Volume on the all-share index decreased to 671.5 million from 812.3 million a session before.
The value of shares fell to Rs13.7 billion from Rs16.6 billion in the previous session.
K-Electric Ltd was the volume leader with 114 million shares, followed by Fauji Foods Ltd with 86 million shares, and Cnergyico PK at 70 million shares.
Shares of 352 companies were traded on Friday, of which 116 registered an increase, 226 recorded a fall, while 10 remained unchanged.
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