KARACHI: The Pakistan equity market witnessed a bloodbath session on Tuesday due to intense selling pressure amid renewed uncertainty on the political front besides record rupee depreciation.

An analyst at Pearl Securities said that the market witnessed a bloodbath after a sideways opening.

“The market witnessed a selling spree across the board over uncertain political and economic conditions and a free-fall of rupee, where it hit the record low of Rs221 against the dollar,” he added.

The Pakistan Stock Exchange KSE-100 shares Index shed 2.36 per cent, or 978.04 points, to close at 40,389.07 points. The KSE-30 shares Index shed 2.67 per cent, or 420.70 points, to close at 15,325.43 points.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that bears took charge at the bourse today as bloodbath continued. Despite opening in the green zone, the benchmark KSE-100 Index dropped down to an intraday low of 40,216 level.

“Selling momentum continued across the board due to political unrest and rupee depreciation against the dollar, making a historic high in the interbank and open market,” he added.

As many as 339 scrips were active of which 46 advanced, 285 declined and 8 remained unchanged.

The ready market volumes stood at 194.86 million shares, compared with the turnover of 151.35 million shares in the last trading session.

The companies which reflected the highest gains included Allawasaya Textile up Rs176.25 to close at Rs2,526.25/share, Nestle Pakistan up Rs37.50 to close at Rs5,980/share.

The companies which reflected the most losses included Premium Textile down Rs63.74 to close at Rs786.25/share, and Mehmood Textile down Rs54.95 to close at Rs700.05/share.

The highest volumes were witnessed in K-Electric with a turnover of 19.61 million shares. The scrip shed 3 paisas at Rs3.02/share, followed by WorldCall Telecom with a turnover of 17.67 million shares. It shed 11 paisas to close at Rs1.25/share. Cnergyico PK remained the third with a turnover of 9.96 million shares. It shed 16 paisas to finish at Rs5.02/share.