KARACHI: Share prices dropped at a rapid pace on Monday owing to an increase in political noise, uncertainty about the resumption of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan programme, continued depreciation of the rupee and the expectation of an interest rate hike.

According to Arif Habib Ltd, trading remained dull on the main board, although hefty volumes were observed in third-tier stocks.

`On the positive side, the market is expecting early dissolution of assemblies and a deal with the IMF to arrest the rupee`s slide against the dollar,` said Shahzad Khan, research analyst at Standard Capital Securities.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 42,440.25 points, down 660.46 points or 1.53 per cent from the pre-ceding closing.

The trading volume decreased 37.4pc to 119m shares while the tradedvalue went down 6.6pc to $17.8 million on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing sig-nificantly to the traded volume included Silkbank Ltd (9.98m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (7.62m shares),K-Electric Ltd (6.12m shares), Ghani Global Holdings Ltd (6.01m shares) and Cnergyico PK Ltd(5.45m shares).

Sectors that took away the highest number of points from the benchmark index included cement (120.78 points), fertiliser (88.96 points), oil and gas exploration (79.9 points), technology and communication (72.46 points) and commercial banking (63.05 points).

Shares contributing most negatively to the index included Lucky Cement Ltd (67.01 points), Systems Ltd (56.3 points), the Hub Power Company Ltd (37.68 points), Fauji Fertiliser Company Ltd (30.98 points) and Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (29.21 points).

Stocks that contributed most positively to the index included Murree Brewery Ltd (5.04 points), Habib Metropolitan Bank Ltd (1.54 points), Bank Alfalah Ltd (1.1 points), Dolmen City REIT (0.98 points) and the Searle Company Ltd (0.88 points).