Pakistan: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) suffered a major meltdown as a result of the country's ongoing political turmoil. PSX, which had previously held the title of Asia's best-performing stock market in 2020, is now Asia's third-worst-performing stock market. It may probably be the second-worst performing market in the current fiscal year, trailing only Sri Lanka. Investors witnessed the wipeout of 16.27 percent (or 1.35 trillion PKR) of investment at the PSX, as market capitalisation (the total value of all listed companies) slumped to a multiyear low at 6.95 trillion PKR on Thursday, compared to the peak of 8.29 trillion PKR in June 2021, The Express Tribune reported.


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In terms of market capitalization loss, the petroleum refinery was the worst-affected sector. In March, the sector's capitalisation was 66 billion PKR, down from 146.56 billion PKR at the end of June 2021.


According to the Pakistan Economic Survey 2021-22, the cement sector lost 24% of its market capitalization between July and March FY22, while vehicle assemblers lost 13%.


PSX became the third worst performing market in Asia after the benchmark KSE-100 index dropped 5.1 percent (or 2,427 points) in the first nine months (July-March) of the outgoing fiscal year and closed at 44,929 points on March 31, The Express Tribune quoted the survey as saying.


The latest data suggests that the PSX has become the second worst performing market in the region after Sri Lanka in the entire current fiscal year (July-June FY22), it has been learned.


"Pakistan stock market`s performance has posted a boom-and-bust situation during FY2022 (Jul-Mar) due to geopolitical tension, especially Russia-Ukraine conflict, and domestic political uncertainty," the survey said.