Bears return on PSX after seven weeks.

KARACHI -- The seven-week winning streak at the stock market which had seen the KSE-100 index collect jaw-dropping gains of 7,259 points (22 per cent) snapped in the outgoing week when the index closed in the negative by 84 points (0.20pc) at 40,833.

Although all was well on the economic front and the political relationship with the opposition slogged through a thaw, a completely unforeseen event, stopped the bulls right in their tracks. The nearly forgotten Special Court case against former president Musharraf first announced a short judgement which was met with angry rebuke by the army.

But the full judgement coming on Thursday containing a widely criticised paragraph caused worries across the country of a possible major confrontation between two important state institutions.

It also rocked the stock market where frightened investors ran helter-skelter in panic-selling which dragged the index down in the red by a staggering 984.34 points (2.28pc) which wiped out all of the earlier days' gains.

However, the response of the army spokesman in measured tone to the detailed judgement went to calm the market where seasoned players said it looked like the fear of conflict between institutions had been averted. There was also a bevy of good news near the close of the week, which helped calm the market. It recouped the weeks' losses but fell short of full recovery and the index finished in the red.

The executive board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) completed its first review of Pakistan's economic performance under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) that allows a disbursement of $452m.

In addition, the current account deficit for November was reported lower by 73pc at $319m bringing...