The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed a bloodbath on Tuesday on the back of political uncertainty a day after a joint investigation team (JIT) report on the ruling Sharif family's financial history was submitted to the apex court, taking a 2,153-point nosedive as the day's trading commenced.

Within minutes of the market opening, the benchmark KSE-100 index had plunged over 1,300 points, going from 46,273 at 9:30am to 44,969 by 9:35am ─ a drop of nearly 2.83 per cent.

By around noon, the market had fallen deeper to 44,221 points, a drop of 4.43pc or 2,052 points. By close of trading, the market's losses had swelled to 2,153 points (4.65pc). Total KSE-100 volumes clocked in at 104 million shares, worth Rs8.24 billion.

Both volumes and share value were markedly lower than the day earlier, when the market had risen 1,000 points on speculations that the JIT had found nothing incriminating against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Of the 368 symbols traded on Tuesday, only 24 advanced and 10 remained unchanged. The rest closed red.

Most of the top scrips traded closed at or near their lower locks — the maximum 5pc (for stocks worth Rs20 or more) or Re1 depreciation allowed in a stock's price before trading in it is halted for the day.

The index had witnessed a great deal of uncertainty in the days leading up to the submission of the JIT's report.

On the first day of the fiscal year, the benchmark index took a 4pc plunge, shedding 1,900 points as political uncertainty clouded the outcome of the JIT probe.

It was the first time the index had tanked over 4pc since in August 2015, when China depreciated the Yuan, and before that in August 2014, during the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf's sit-in in Islamabad.

Volumes were led by:

K-Electric Ltd: 17.4m shares traded (-5.71pc);

TRG Pak Ltd: 9.7m shares traded (-4.98pc);

Aisha Steel Mill: 9.3m shares traded (-4.97pc);

B.O.Punjab: 9.1m shares traded (-8.26pc);

Engro Polymer: 6.9m shares traded (-4.97pc).