Stocks take severe battering

The PML-N decision to part ways with the ruling coalition further deepened political uncertainty in the country with KSE-100 index losing another 383.37 points to close at its 26-month low level of 9,430.29 points. "The deepening political uncertainty in the country and the weakening economic indicators were the investors main concerns and forced them to offload their holdings", analysts said.
The KSE-30 index declined by 515.52 points and settled at 10,536.12 points level. Some buying supported the index in the initial stage to enter into the positive zone. However, heavy selling pressure forced the index into the red territory again to hit 9,384.02 points intra-day low level, down by 429.64 points.
Trading activity remained almost flat as the ready market volume stood at 87.509 million shares as compared to 86.616 million shares in the previous session, while the futures market turnover was recorded at 15.156 million shares against 18.067 million shares on Monday.
The overall market capitalisation declined by Rs 117 billion to Rs 2.944 trillion. Trading took place in 278 scrips, out of which 239 scrips closed in the negative and only 27 scrips closed in the positive while the value of 12 scrips remained unchanged.
OGDC was the overall volume leader of the day with 7.372 million shares. However, it lost Rs 5.42 to close at Rs 103.08. PPL declined by Rs 8.59 to close at Rs 207.40 with 3.626 million shares.
Selling pressure was also witnessed in the banking sector, as NIB bank, NBP and Bankislami lost Re. 0.56, Rs 5.15 and Re. 1.00 to close at Rs 8.50, Rs 97.91 and Rs 11.71 with 5.879 million shares, 3.883 million shares and 2.345 million shares respectively.
Zeal Pak decreased by Re. 0.16 to close at Rs 1.19 with 4.644 million shares. Nimir Industries Chemical lost Re. 0.23 to close at Rs 2.03 with 2.617 million shares. Hub Power declined by Re. 0.42 to close at Rs 21.30 with 2.573 million shares. Arif Habib Sec lost Rs 5.20 to close at Rs 98.80 with 2.325 million shares. Engro Chemical decreased by Rs 9.69 to close at Rs 184.21 with 2.191 million shares.
Merit Pack and Crescent Textile were the highest gainers and gained Rs 2.71 and Rs 2.23 to close at Rs 60.70 and Rs 53.00 respectively while Shell Pakistan and EFU Life Assurance were the worst losers and lost Rs 21.95 and Rs 18.70 to close at Rs 417.25 and Rs 355.30 respectively.
Ahsan Mehanti at Shehzad Chamdia Securities said that the selling pressure continued owing to investors concern over the political crises. This uncertainty has shaken the confidence of the investors. Foreign selling continued due to the declining rupee value and the prevailing economic condition of the country.