Index loses 412 points amid political uncertainty.

KARACHI -- Stock pricAes slightly went up as trading began on Monday before bears took over the exchange on the negative news flow.

Arif Habib Ltd said the benchmark of representative shares of the Pakistan Stock Exchange lost steam because of continuous economic and political uncertainties.

Negative triggers plunAged the index to an intra-day low of 420.71 points. Investors chose to be cautious while trading, which led to the drying up of volumes on the exchange's mainboard. Meanwhile, sideboard scrips dominated the volume board.

JS Global said rising political noise and a lack of progress on the loan programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) induced selling pressure.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 40,918.45 points, down 411.50 points or one per cent from the preceding session.

The overall trading volume increased 13.3pc to 195.5 million shares. The traded value went down 38.1pc to $17.6m on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Unity Foods Ltd (25m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (16.6m shares), Fauji Foods Ltd (15.1m shares), Maple Leaf Cement Factory Ltd (9.6m shares) and Pakistan InterAnational Bulk Terminal Ltd (6.6m...