Karachi Stock Exchange loses 554 points on banking sector woes

KARACHI: Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) Monday lost a staggering 2.48 percent as banking sector witnessed constant offloading following an increase in minimum Profit and Loss Sharing (PLS) saving account rate by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
The benchmark 100-Index went down by 554.63 points to close at 21,832.68 mark.
At the end of the day most of the banking scrips closed at their lower circuit breakers whereas some cement stocks also declined by about 5 percent.
Analysts said that after witnessing a net foreign selling of $14 million last week investors feared that more selling to come to the market due to declining regional markets.
National Bank of Pakistan went down by 4.99 percent to Rs49.29 while the United Bank Ltd shed 3.54 percent to settle at Rs133