Pakistan Stock Exchange bullish as PTI looks set for victory

KARACHI: The stock market witnessed a bullish trend Thursday as early election results tipped the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for victory.

The Pakistan Stock Exchange saw a significant increase in activity during afternoon trading, a day after the country voted for its second consecutive democratic transfer of power, as the benchmark KSE-100 index gained 709 points to reach 42,048 points.

Preliminary, unofficial results showed the PTI, headed by cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, leading the National Assembly tally. As party workers from across the country celebrated the results, the incumbent Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) flat out rejected the pending results of Wednesday’s election, citing "outright rigging" and accusing officials of preventing its representatives from overseeing the count.

PTI leads NA tally as vote results continue to pour in

Real-time preliminary and unofficial results

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) denied the claims, saying a new electronic results system suffered unexpected glitches. Despite the technical issues, "these elections were 100 percent fair and transparent", said Chief Election Commissioner Sardar Muhammad Raza earlier today, in his first comments after polls closed.