KARACHI: Pakistan equities tanked on Tuesday as institutional selling in broader market dragged benchmark KSE100 Index below the 45,000 level, down by 1679 points or 3.6 percent. The benchmark KSE100 index so far has shed approximately 15% or 8000 points from its peak and 11.2% or 5700 points post MSCI EM upgrade. Market after opening and trading in positive territory for a brief period, skidded lower on thin volumes in the first two hours of trading. It then followed sharp declines as institutional investors primarily locals turned aggressive sellers in Index names on rumored large redemptions and prevailing concerns on domestic politics. Investors are clearly pricing in the air of political uncertainty associated with the ongoing JIT. It’s daily proceedings and developments are subsequently smeared in sensational fashion across all media outlets, and could likely ramp up as the 60 day deadline approaches. Albeit the correction has reopened attractive valuations, but for now it seems politics is in the drivers seat, analysts at Topline Securities commented. On Tuesday blue chips across major sectors closed at or near lower price limits with major dent coming from Habib HBL, OGDC, MCB Bank MCB, Engro Corp, Lucky Cement and Pakistan Petroleum. Top 10 index point losers were HBL (-4.9%), OGDC (-4.8%), MCB (-5%), ENGRO (-4%) & LUCK (-3.5%), PPL (-4.6%), FFC (-5%), DGKC (-4.3%), POL (-4.2%) & UBL (-1.9%), which cumulatively eroded 742 points from the index. Within the 100 index constituents, 88 scripts closed lower, 9 were unchanged while only 3 were positive. On the sector front, Banks shed 418 points, E&P’s 217 points, Cement 214 points, Fertilizer 187 points, OMC’s 108 points and Auto Assemblers 95 points. Market participation shot up as volumes spiked 73% to 295 million shares, while traded value rose 42% to Rs13 billion/$124 million. Analysts expect volatile market possibly a bounce back in remaining days of this short week however turnover and interest is likely to improve only after Eid holidays. Published in Daily Times, June 21st, 2017.