PSX loses 602 points amid political uncertainty.

KARACHI -- Stock trading started on Monday with investors exhibiting negative sentiments for shares from a wide range of sectors.

Arif Habib Ltd said share prices dropped and stayed in the red territory throughout the trading session owing to the prevailing political uproar. One of the four provincial assemblies stands dissolved while another provincial legislature is likely to be dissolved soon as part of the opposition's strategy to force early general elections.

Investors' participation remained sluggish as the benchmark index made an intraday low of 662.70 points and closed negative at the end of trading. VoluAmes remained dry across the board as well, it said.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 39,720.75 points, down 602.7 points or 1.49 per cent from the preceding session.

The overall trading volume decreased 39.1pc to 105.5 million shares. The traded value went down 30.8pc to $14m on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included WorldCall Telecom Ltd (8.9m shares), Hascol Petroleum Ltd (7.8m shares), Lotte Chemical Company Ltd (7.6m shares), Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (6.8m shares) and Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (4m...