KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) lost more than 300 points on Monday, traders said, with stock analysts attributing the slump to political uncertainty ahead of the national elections in February.
The benchmark KSE-100 index lost 368 points to close at 64,269 points at the end of the session on Monday, according to the PSX website.
The bears returned to the trading floor days after resolutions were tabled in the upper house of parliament, the Senate, calling for a delay of national elections, due to be held on Feb. 8.
“Stocks closed bearish amid pre-poll uncertainty and concerns over outcome of ongoing Senate resolutions to postpone general elections due next month,” Ahsan Mehanti, chief executive officer of the Karachi-based capital market company Arif Habib Corporation, told Arab News.
The development also came two days after the Supreme Court of Pakistan denied poll symbol to former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, which is one of the three major political parties in Pakistan, diminishing its chances of making a significant mark in the elections.
The ruling upset hundreds of thousands of supporters of Khan, who is widely seen as the country’s most popular leader and remains behind bars since August in a graft case.
Mehanti believed the recent “political noise,” coupled with uncertainty about the central bank monetary policy announcement, resulted in Monday’s bearish close of the market.
“Political noise, geo-political uncertainty and uncertainty over SBP (State Bank of Pakistan) policy announcement this month amid high inflation played a catalyst role in the bearish close,” he said.
Elections in the politically and economically troubled South Asian nation were originally due to be held in November, 90 days after the dissolution of the lower house of parliament in August, but they were delayed to February due to fresh demarcation of constituencies under a new census.
However, Pakistan’s election regulator has categorically ruled out delaying the elections.
“ECP (Election Commission of Pakistan) has made all necessary arrangements regarding the conduct of General Elections 2024,” the ECP said in a recent letter addressed to the Senate Secretariat.
