Stocks went into an exorbitant tailspin on the first trading day of the week, losing over 960 points, the biggest one-day fall since the April earlier this year, as kse-100 index witnessed panic selling in blue chip stocks on political uncertainty. Analysts said the steep fall was led by scrips across-the-board amid a possible ruckus at the political spectrum for the days to come after PML-N president and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif was arrested by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Monday. The move came after the Lahore High Court rejected his bail plea in a money laundering case. On Monday, Pakistan stock exchange (PSX) witnessed panic across the board with benchmark kse-100 index ruled by bears as it clocked at 40,740.95 points by the session’s closing. During the session the index touched its intraday low at 40,644.82 index level after the index lost 1056.41points. The index volumes jumped receded from 314.27 million shares recorded in the previous session to 282.07 million shares, while the overall market volumes also decreased from 435.02 million shares from the previous session to 407.2 million shares. The volume chart was led by Hascol Petroleum Limited, followed by TRG Pakistan and K-Electric Limited. The scrips exchanged 46.69 million shares, 34.54 million shares and 30.21 million shares respectively. Sectors which dragged down the index were Commercial Banks with 227 points, Cement with 137 points, Fertilizer with 75 points, Textile Composite with 59 points and Oil & Gas Exploration Companies with 58 points. Among the scrips, most points taken off the index was by Habib Bank Limited which stripped the index of 79 points followed by Mari Petroleum Company Limited with 47 points, Bank Al Habib Limited with 44 points, Engro Corporation Limited with 37 points and Hub Power Company Limited with 35 points. Scrips, which continued to resist the pressure and added value to the index were TRG Pakistan Limited which contributed 6 points followed by EFU General Insurance Limited with 3 points, Millat Tractors Limited with 2 points and Service Industries Limited with 1 point. Global markets ticked up over economic recovery hopes Global stocks advanced on Monday over hopes of economic recovery after investors rook cues from Chinese industrial data, which showed China’s industrial profits rose 19.1% in August, the country’s National Bureau of Statistics announced over the weekend. Chinese economic data has been watched by investors for signs of the country’s continued recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. Investors also embraced new-flow from the U.S over a possible Covid-19 package after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday a last-minute coronavirus aid deal remains on the table as House Democrats try to forge ahead on a smaller aid package costing about $2.4 trillion. The chamber could vote on the bill as soon as next week. Still, that price tag is well above what Republican leadership has indicated it will support for a new package. In Asia, markets picked up the pace as Japan’s Nikkei 225 led the regional gains, and added 1.32% to close at 23,511.62 followed by South Korea’s Kospi index which rose 1.29% to close at 2,308.08, with entertainment shares in the country jumping after K-pop sensation BTS’ label Big Hit Entertainment priced its anticipated IPO at the top end of the range. Meanwhile, Hang Seng index in Hong Kong also rose 1.04% to close at 23,476.05 after shares of China Evergrande Group in Hong Kong soared 20.61%. It came after the Shenzhen-based property developer, announced Friday that its “operations remain stable and healthy while financial conditions remain sound.” However, Chinese stocks lagged on the day, with the Shanghai composite fractionally lower at about 3,217.53. European markets also rallied on Monday, as the stocks aimed to recover from their worst week since mid-June, with a global rise in coronavirus cases and political developments stateside on investors’ radar. The rally was led by banking stocks while all sectors and major bourses entered positive territory. Among the major banking stocks, HSBC shares surged 9.2% by early afternoon after China’s Ping An Insurance announced that it would increase its stake in Europe’s largest lender. The rally extended across the banking sector, with Deutsche Bank and Standard Chartered, Barclays and Credit Agricole all adding more than 5%. The rally in the stocks lifted major benchmarks including Germany’s DAX which led the gains, and added nearly 3%, followed by CAC-40 in France and UK’s FTSE-100, gaining 2.33% and 1.68%. In U.S, Wall Street built upon the previous session’s gains with major tech stocks inching up. Facebook and Amazon each climbed more than 1%, while Apple and Netflix stocks were also up 2% and 0.8%, respectively. During the early trading hours, Dow Jones Industrial Average was trading 322 points higher, while the S&P 500 was also trading 1.1% higher. The tech heavy Nasdaq Composite was also advancing on the day.