Staff Reporter
Karachi
Taking a cue from last week’s bearish momentum, the stock market slumped nearly 1,000 points on Monday and closed below the 41,000 mark on a string of bad political news.
There was nothing to cheer investors as the market remained range bound till midday. However, the news of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President and leader of opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif being arrested by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in a money laundering case set off alarm bells. It sent investors to the exit door, who dumped stocks to seek shelter.
The uncertainty mounted when an Islamabad accountability court indicted former president Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur in a mega money laundering case.
At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded a decrease of 960.28 points, or 2.3%, to settle at 40,740.95 points. Cement, oil and gas marketing, refinery and banking sectors faced heavy selling pressure.
Technology stocks topped the volumes with trading in 59.7 million shares, followed by oil and gas marketing companies (54.6 million) and power companies (38.4 million).
Individually stocks that contributed positively to the index included TRG Pakistan (+6 points), EFU General Insurance (+3 points), Millat Tractors (+2 points) and Service Industries (+1 point).
