KARACHI: Share prices tumbled on Tuesday amid a rapidly deteriorating political situation.

Topline Securities said the stock market witnessed some buying interest after trading opened on a negative note. However, the news about the arrest of former prime minister Imran Khan dampened the confidence of investors and caused a sharp drop in the index of representative shares.

Arif Habib Ltd called the trading session a bloodbath in view of the unrelenting political turmoil. Investors’ participation remained reasonable, it said. Decent volumes were recorded across the board while third-tier stocks remained in the limelight.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 41,373.81 points, down 455.68 points or 1.09 per cent from the preceding session.

The overall trading volume increased 13.4pc to 203.1 million shares. The traded value went up 22.4pc to $20.5m on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included WorldCall Telecom Ltd (31m shares), National Bank of Pakistan Ltd (10.6m shares), K-Electric Ltd (8.2m shares), TPL Properties Ltd (8m shares) and Hascol Petroleum Ltd (7.8m shares).

Sectors contributing the most to the index performance were commercial banking (-109.5 points), exploration and production (-78.3 points), fertiliser (-56.3 points), investment banking (-36.7 points) and technology and communication (-33.1 points).

Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Rafhan Maize Products Company Ltd (Rs39.75), Siemens Pakistan Engineering Ltd (Rs33.51), ZIL Ltd (Rs15.93), Lucky Core Industries Ltd (Rs9.63) and Feroze 1888 Mills Ltd (Rs4.48).

Companies that recorded the biggest declines in their share prices in absolute terms were Fazal Cloth Mills Ltd (Rs10.76), Mari Petroleum Company Ltd (Rs9.58), Millat Tractors Ltd (Rs9.13), Philip Morris Pakistan Ltd (Rs8.70) and Service Industries Ltd (Rs8.45).

Foreign investors were net buyers as they purchased shares worth $0.06m.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2023