Stocks falter on political uncertainty

After scaling an all-time high a day earlier supported by a successful SCO summit, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Thursday came under renewed selling pressure stemming from mounting political tensions in the backdrop of the proposed 26th constitutional amendment, pulling the KSE 100 index below 86,000 on aggressive foreign selling. Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said stocks closed under pressure on political noise amid uncertainty over the outcome of judicial reforms and foreign outflows. He noted that government actions on IPP payment and tariff issues, weak global crude oil prices and delays in privatising state-owned enterprises negatively impacted investor sentiment.