KARACHI, May 16: Shares at the Karachi stock market dropped sharply on Wednesday, with the KSE-100 index down 232.60 points or 1.63 per cent.

Equities all across the board took a plunge and even the cement stocks which were in the forefront of the current rally seemed to have lost charm and conceded more of the previous gains. Foreign investors sold net $1.67 million worth equity.

Most market experts said that it was fallout of the slump in global and particularly the emerging equity markets. Equity experts pointed out that shares had taken heavy beating across emerging markets.

Indian stocks slumped 2 per cent on Wednesday; Korean shares also slipped by 2 per cent and the Chinese stocks, which make up a fifth of the emerging index, fell 1.2 per cent. The fear of uncertainty over political situation in Greece and its possible exit from the eurozone, which had the implication of casting a huge blow on the eurozone debt crisis, accelerated investors flight from higher-risk assets, such as stocks.

Many brokers said that the headway made in the reopening of vital land routes for Nato supplies to Afghanistan, after nearly six months of suspension, was a move that market approved. Yet, stocks had already priced-in the positive effect and as such it had little implication on the day’s movement of equity prices.

Samar Iqbal, equity dealer at Topline Securities, said that investors trimmed their position as they feared more foreign selling if bearish trend in the regional markets persisted. Reduction in cement prices affected cement stocks especially, the two big on the sector, DG Khan and Lucky.

Ahsan Mehanti, analyst at Arif Habib Corp, commented that the fall in local urea, cement prices and concerns over proposals for banking sector in federal budget due next month affected the market sentiments despite expectations for improvement of Pak-US relations after decisions on resumption of Nato supplies by the Defence Committee of the Cabinet.

Also security concerns in the city, limited foreign interest and outstanding circular debt issues in Pakistan energy sector cast bearish spell on the KSE. The reports of government borrowings crossing Rs1 trillion and foreign direct investment (FDI) down by a huge 48 per cent during the first 10 months (July-April) of this fiscal year were noted by the investors with distress.

The benchmark KSE-100 index closed at 14,081.07 points on Wednesday, while the market cap based KSE-30 index also plunged by 224.54 points to 12,276.66 points.

Volume of business for the day slipped to 146 million shares, from 153 million shares on Tuesday, while traded value showed a heavy fall of Rs170 billion to Rs5,133 billion on Wednesday, from Rs6,303 billion the earlier day. Equity values tumbled in 237 stocks out of the 371 actives. Only 76 added gains and 58 remained unchanged.

The heaviest fall for the day was recorded in UniLever Pak, down by Rs84.23 to Rs7052, followed by Nestle Pakistan down by Rs83.43 to Rs4004.57. Among stocks that gained values, UniLever Food rose by Rs74.45 to Rs3245.45 and Mitchell’s Fruit Farms up by Rs9 to Rs205.

Stocks with significant tur-nover were led by D.G. Khan Cement with trading in 16m shares, down by Rs1.95 to Rs41.20. It was followed by Engro Foods recording another plunge of Rs3.09 to Rs60.58 on 15m shares. PTCL slipped 86 paisa to Rs16.12 on 15m shares, Jah Sidd Co lower by 68 paisa to Rs15.91 on 9m shares. BankIslami hit upper cap of Re1 to Rs8.97 on 6m shares, Fatima Fertiliser easy by 76 paisa to Rs24.48 on 5m shares, Lotte PakPTA backed down by 25 paisa to Rs9.17 on 5m shares, Fauji Cement slipped 18 paisa to Rs6.01 on 5m shares, Hub Power Com-pany gave up 76 paisa to Rs38.75 on 4m shares and Engro Corporation plunged by Rs5.12 to Rs103.29 on 4m shares.