Stocks tumble below 166,000 on political noise

Dawn reported that the Pakistan Stock Exchange came under pressure on Monday after the march by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) toward Islamabad began following the collapse of talks with the government. Jittery investors sold heavily, erasing Rs261 billion of market capitalisation in one session. The benchmark KSE-100 ended 1.36 per cent lower at 165,867.32, a fall of 2,288.17 points, after dipping as low as 165,764.21 during the day.

Topline Securities attributed the fall mainly to the absence of new upbeat triggers, while political unease also weighed on sentiment. Ali Najib of Arif Habib Ltd said the index slipped through 166,000, a level acting as key support, as oil prices and regional tensions fed risk aversion across sectors. Volume dropped 10.53 per cent to 441.89 million shares, while turnover shrank 10.18 per cent to Rs15.7bn.

Six stocks, including United Bank, Habib Bank, Hub Power, Pakistan Petroleum, Oil and Gas Development Company and Bank Al-Habib, together pulled the index lower by 1,114 points. First National Equities Ltd recorded the highest traded volume, at 50.2m shares. Separately, September cement despatches climbed 6 per cent from a year earlier to 4.62m tonnes, on firmer domestic demand.