Index takes 315-point plunge

Rising political uncertainty both on domestic and regional levels, coupled with diplomatic row between Pakistan and the US invited panic selling at Karachi Stock Exchange on Tuesday and the KSE-100 index registered a heavy loss of 315.30 points to close at 11,649.38 points.
"The declining trend in global capital markets on political unrest in Libya and anti-government demonstrations across Middles East affected investors'' sentiment who opted to offload their holdings", analysts said. Trading volume at the ready counter, however, increased to 101.529 million shares as compared to 50.827 million shares traded on Monday. Market capitalisation declined by Rs 85 billion to Rs 3.151 trillion. Of 354 active scrips, 225 closed in negative and 44 in positive, while the values of 85 stocks remained unchanged.
Lotte Pakistan PTA was the volume leader with 9.087 million shares, losing Re 0.34 to close at Rs 15.40. BoP, SilkBank and UBL declined by Re 1.00, Re 0.15 and Rs 1.16 to close at Rs 6.65, Rs 2.31 and Rs 59.91 with 6.703 million shares, 3.034 million shares and 2.567 million shares respectively.
Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim decreased by Re 0.07 to close at Rs 39.97 with 6.575 million shares. Descon Oxychem lost Re 0.50 to close at Rs 6.55 with 4.987 million shares. Jahangir Siddiqui Co declined by Re 0.69 to close at Rs 9.73 with 3.889 million shares. Azgard Nine closed at Rs 9.83, down Re 0.62 with 3.666 million shares.
Fauji Fertiliser Co (FFC) plunged by Rs 5.25 to close at Rs 115.09 with 3.011 million shares. NML declined by Rs 2.10 to close at Rs 60.20 with 2.944 million shares. Dawood Hercules and Gadoon Textile were the highest gainers increasing by Rs 11.30 and Rs 3.25 to close at Rs 237.34 and Rs 76.39 respectively, while Unilever Pak and Rafhan Maize were the worst losers declining by Rs 183.48 and Rs 76.98 to close at Rs 4729.55 and Rs 2443.61 respectively.
Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Investments said that panic selling was witnessed in the earnings announcement session in scrips across the board as global capital markets plunged on political unrest in Libya and anti-government demonstrations across the Middle East. He said that the rising political uncertainty as government alliance with PML-N near its end affected the sentiment. Investors remained cautious throughout the trading session on concerns for rising circular debt in Pakistan energy sector and political reservation for rising local POL prices despite Brent crude crossing $108.