Pakistan equities extended losses from last week amid thin market participation, as the benchmark KSE-100 Index closed on a negative note, registering a drop of 0.66%. Volume and value of shares declined from the previous session.

During the trading session at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Monday, the Index swung both ways between an intraday high of 43,767.77 (up by 114 points) and a low of 43,324.94 (down by 328 points).

At close, it ended with a drop of 286.44 points, or 0.66%, to settle at 43,366.83.

Last week, the PSX remained under pressure due to the political situation in the country and an overheated commodities cycle. The benchmark KSE-100 index declined by 898.02 points on a week-on-week basis and closed at 43,653.33 points.

Inter-Market Securities in its note expected the market to remain range-bound amid the ongoing political situation, where Prime Minister Imran Khan is struggling to keep his allies on his side and to beat the no-confidence motion expected in coming weeks, while the opposition is offering incentives to gather 172 votes against the government.

On the economic front, the Pakistani rupee recorded an all-time low at PKR 178.9849/US$. On FYTD basis, it depreciated by 13.61% or PKR 21.44. The rupee has so far lost 1.40% or PKR 2.47 during 2022.

Sectors wiping the gains of the index included banking (59.07 points), oil and gas exploration (57.65 points) and cement (56.42 points).

Volume on the all-share index decreased to 115.12 million from 149.3 million on Friday. The value of shares traded also declined to Rs3.65 billion from Rs5.27 billion recorded in the previous session.

Flying Cement (R) was the volume leader with 11.63 million shares, followed by Pak Elektron (R) with 8.14 million shares, and Ghani Global Holdings with 7.02 million shares.

Shares of 334 companies were traded on Monday, of which 79 registered an increase, 242 recorded a fall, and 13 remained unchanged.