The rising political temperature and instability best manifested by the arrest of Leader of Opposition Shehbaz on Monday triggered a bloodbath at Pakistan Stock Exchange resulting in the KSE-100 Index losing over 950 points.

Although the market was already under pressure in the recent days, the index literally went south as soon as the news of the latest arrest was aired by TV channels. At one stage, the market was down by over 1,050 points.

By the time trading was closed, the KSE-100 Index stood at 40,740.95 after shedding 960.28 points, which means that all the gains made by the market this month have been wiped out. The index had closed August at 41,110.93. 

The selloff meant the 315 companies shed their share prices with only 56 managing some gains. There was no change in the value of 11.

So the being on the list of most active stocks wasn’t a good idea at all as nine out of the top 10 companies suffered losses. The only exception was TRG Pakistan Limited which made 1.13 percent gain after trading 34,511,000 shares.

However, the three biggest losers despite being among the most active stocks were: Byco Petroleum Pakistan Limited 16,555,500 shares and 7.81 percent loss, Maple Leaf Cement Factory Limited 12,326,000 shares and 6.66 percent loss, Pakistan international Bulk Terminal Limited 15,668,000 shares and 5.78 percent loss.   

Meanwhile, Kohinoor Power Company Limited, Capital Assets Leasing Corporation Limited and First National Bank Modaraba were worst performers in the market as their share prices were slashed by 18.40 percent, 18 percent and 16.54 percent respectively.

On the other hand, the top advancers made some modest gains. The three top performers in this category were: Nazir Cotton Mills Limited 8.50 percent, JK Spinning Mills Limited 7.50 percent and Mitchells Fruit Farms Limited 7.50 percent.