PSX Suffers Worst Single-Day Drop in History, Plunges by Over 3,500 Points 

Pakistan stocks witnessed a black Tuesday with the KSE-100 index posting the biggest ever single-day decline (in terms of points) amid profit-taking and political chaos.  The 100-Index of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) fell by 3505.62 points or 3.71 percent to close at 94,574.16 points as compared to 98,079.78 points on the last trading day.  A total of 1,113,617,710 shares were traded during the day as compared to 640,258,528 shares the previous trading day, whereas the price of shares stood at Rs. 43.165 billion against Rs. 25.623 billion on the last trading day.    As many as 455 companies transacted their shares in the stock market, 52 of them recorded gains and 355 sustained losses, whereas the share price of 48 companies remained unchanged. Brokerage house Topline Securities attributed this steep fall to political uncertainty in the wake of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) protest.  Topline highlighted that intraday, the index swung between a low of 3,899 points and a high of 1,739 points. The State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) removal of the Minimum Deposit Rate (MDR) on conventional banks for companies, alongside its directive for Islamic banks to pay at least 75 percent of the weighted average gross yield on PKR savings individual deposits, further unsettled the market, it added.  Islamic banks MEBL, FABL, and BIPL hit their lower price locks (-10 percent), while negative contributions from MEBL, FFC, OGDC, PPL, and HUBC dragged the index down by 1,385 points. On the positive side, HBL, HMB, BAHL, and BAFL added 282 points, softening the blow, it added.