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 ofthefourprovincial 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 benchmarl( index made an intraday low of 662.70 points and closed negative at the end of trading. Volumes remained dry across the board as well, it said.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 39,720.75points, 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. Thetraded value went down 30.8pc to $14m on a dayon-day basis.

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

Sectors contributing negatively to the index performance were explo-ration and production (132.1 points), technology and communication (97.1 points), cement (63.2 points), fertiliser (57.1 points) and commercial banking (56 points).

Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Shahtaj Textile Ltd (Rs5.90), Archroma Pakistan Ltd (Rs4.92), Noon Sugar Mills Ltd (Rs4.65), JS Global Capital Ltd (Rs4.59) and Hinopak Motors Ltd (Rs4.50).

Companies that recorded the biggest declines in their share prices in absolute terms were Nestle Pakistan Ltd (Rs251), Bata Pakistan Ltd (Rs125.02), Colgate-Palmolive Pakistan Ltd (Rs33.75), Pakistan Engineering Company Ltd (Rs23) and the Thal Industries Corporation Ltd (Rs17.21).

Foreign investors were net sellers as they offloaded shares worth $0.2m.