KARACHI - Pakistan Stock Exchange succumbed to pressure throughout the day owing to uncertainty on the political front and roll-over week pressure. Investors opted for selling on news that Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has been granted indefinite medical leave, creating doubts over continuity of current macroeconomic policies, stated dealer at JS Global. Thus, KSE 100-index pulled off positive in the morning but ultimately bled 326 points to close down at 40,266 points.  PPL (down 0.8%) OGDC (0.3%) and POL (0.1%) in the E&P sector closed in the red zone amidst plummeting international crude oil prices as the US heads to a long thanksgiving weekend and markets await word from the OPEC on a widely expected extension of crude oil output curbs.  Mixed sentiment was observed in the banking sector on anticipation of unchanged policy rate in the upcoming announcement of monetary policy. Key stock such as NBP (down 0.8%), HBL (0.3%) and UBL (0.8%) closed red while MCB (up 0.4%) and BAFL (up 0.4%) closed in the green zone, market participants said.

Major contributors to the index were LUCK 10 points, MCB 6 points, HASCOL 3 points, PGF 3 points and IGIIL added 3 points to the index gain. On the contrary, scrips that contributed negatively included HUBC that shed 40 points, PSO that eroded 32 points, ENGRO that detracted 29 points, PAKT that shed 20 points and NESTLE that took away 19 points from the index. Traded volumes DoD were down 35% to 102m shares while value was up 1% to $51m.