Stocks lose 1,133 points on instability fears

Bears took over the trading floor of the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Thursday after Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf nominated candidates for prime minister and Punjab chief minister as it also started contacts with different parties for the formation of coalition governments. Also, the Pakistan Peoples Party’s reluctance to join Shehbaz Sharif’s cabinet despite announcing support to elect him as prime minister drew strong reactions from the PML-N camp deepening political uncertainty as a result the benchmark KSE 100-share index came under selling pressure wiping out overnight gains. Topline Securities Ltd said equities began trading on a positive note and stayed in the green zone for most of the time as the index made an intraday high at 62,394 level (240 points). However, it started to come off sharply after news reports on different media channels regarding PTI engaging in talks with different parties to form governments in the centre and Punjab. This development knocked down the market’s positive momentum with a feather.