Stocks unchanged amid speculations over military appointments

KARACHI: Stocks ended almost unchanged Thursday on fears that if PTI Chairman Imran Khan forces President Arif Alvi to stonewall the naming of new military leadership, the country might plunge into a political crisis of epic proportions, dealing more blows to the already tottering economy.
However, later in the evening, the speculations petered out after President Alvi signed Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s summary, officialising Lieutenant General Asim Munir as the next Chief of Army Staff (COAS) and Lt Gen Sahir Shamshad Mirza as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC).
This put an end to the political uncertainty that gripped the country the whole day.
The KSE-100 Shares Index, the benchmark of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), edged up by 23 points or 0.05% to finally close at 42,904 points after hitting an intraday high of 134 points at 43,015 points.-PNP