Bears wrecked the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) today, with the benchmark KSE-100 index losing over 2,300 points in intraday trade after the cargo situation at the Red Sea rattled investors and pushed industry-heavy stocks to plummet. Meanwhile, many people on X suggest the market has crashed because investors are concerned about the return of the PDM government and how one-sided elections aren’t in the country’s best interests. The benchmark KSE-100 index appeared bearish from the opening bell and immediately dropped into the red zone, losing 2,000+ points after trading resumed on Tuesday. After opening trade at 65,204 points, the benchmark KSE-100 index crashed to 63,463 at 1 PM. Later at 1:40 PM, it clocked in at 63,116, down by 3.2 percent or 2,088 points. At 1:45 PM, it was down 3 percent or 1,952 points at 63,252. It settled at 62,883, down 3.64 percent or 2,371 points, its second-biggest day-on-day crash in absolute terms, according to Ismail Iqbal Securities. PSX has now lost over 3,000 points in the past two days and continues to plunge as stakeholders (investors and politicians) question the legitimacy of the upcoming elections. ‘The PSX index lost its life, having lost 1,690 points so far today after the announcement of General Elections, a drop of about 2600 points in two days; please consider for God’s sake, neither the people nor the economy have any interest in a one-sided election. People are trembling. The PML-N government is coming back,’ said journalist Kamran Khan in a tweet. Meanwhile, others suggest the main bourse is undergoing a correction and may follow the current trajectory till the end of December. The KMI 30 index shed 3,966 points settling at 105,879, while the KSE All share index declined by 1,676 points to close at 41,967. The highest participation was witnessed in K-Electric Limited (PSX: KEL) with over 341 million shares traded, followed by Worldcall Telecom Limited (PSX: WTL) and Cnergyico PK Limited (PSX: CNERGY). The scrips had 176 million shares and 131 million shares traded, respectively. Top Volumes SCRIP PRICE HIGH LOW CHANGE VOLUME KEL 5.3 6.02 5.0 -0.53 341,067,706 WTL 1.7 1.94 1.62 -0.2 176,027,711 CNERGY 4.94 5.81 4.9 -0.89 131,716,935 BOP 6.59 7.55 6.57 -0.85 118,013,188 PTC 14.95 16.19 14.3 0.01 74,078,000 PIBTL 6.73 7.78 6.73 -0.95 47,019,500 FFL 10.5 11.45 10.12 -0.41 46,632,898
Source: Pro Pakistani