Political turmoil in KP sends Pakistan Stock Exchange into decline

Summary

• The decline reflected growing concerns over political instability following emergency measures in KP and reports of a police crackdown against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders and workers.
• Analysts said uncertainty surrounding the situation in KP had added to existing concerns over inflation, interest rates and geopolitical tensions.
• Fawad Basir, head of research at KTrade, said the market had fallen by 1,065 points at one stage, extending its losses amid regional uncertainty and political tensions following the imposition of emergency measures in parts of KP.

AI Generated Summary

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed a broad sell-off on Monday as political uncertainty surrounding the imposition of governor’s rule in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) weighed on investor confidence at the start of the trading week.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index fell by 752.13 points, or 0.45%, to 166,337.14 by midday. The decline reflected growing concerns over political instability following emergency measures in KP and reports of a police crackdown against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders and workers.

During early trading, the index had dropped 305.64 points, or 0.18%, to 166,783.63 by 9:43am. It later fluctuated between an intraday high of 166,988.32 and a low of 166,002.23. Trading volume reached 54.39 million shares, with the total traded value standing at Rs3.87 billion.