Stocks tumble below 166,000 on political noise
KARACHI: The start of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s much-hyped march, after talks with the government collapsed, rattled the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Monday. Amid uncertainty, jittery investors rushed to sell, driving market capitalisation down by a staggering Rs261 billion in a single session. Persistent geopolitical tensions and elevated oil prices also threatened economic stability.…
The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed a significant downturn on Monday after the launch of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf's (PTI) highly anticipated march into Islamabad. Investors reacted to the political uncertainty, causing a sharp decline in market capitalisation, with the KSE-100 index plummeting by 2,288 points, or 1.36 percent, and reaching a low of 165,764.21 points during the session.
The decline was attributed to a lack of fresh positive catalysts and heightened geopolitical tensions, coupled with elevated oil prices, which added to macroeconomic uncertainty. The opposition's march, which began following the failure of government-opposition talks, raised concerns about further political disruption. As the market reacted to the political developments, trading volume fell by 10.53 percent, and turnover value dipped by 10.18 percent, indicating a weakening of investor participation.
Analysts forecast that the equities market would remain volatile and range-bound amid continued geopolitical and domestic political uncertainty, with the potential for positive developments in local or regional politics to support market momentum in the near term.
Written by urgent.news from Dawn Business's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
