KARACHI: An escalation in border tensions with Iran and uncertainty about general elections continued fuelling aggressive selling by nervous investors on the share market on Thursday as a result the benchmark KSE 100-share index tumbled 1,038.78 to 62,528.56 intraday.

Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said investor sentiments rem­ained depressed amid growing fears of souring diplomatic ties after Pak­istan retaliated with a targeted missile attack on terrorist hideouts inside Iran.

However, some positive economic news including a 35 per cent jump in foreign direct investment in the first half of FY24, UAE rollover of $2bn deposit for a year, landing of $705m IMF tranche and a current account surplus in December 2023 after five months boosted investor confidence who cherry-picked as a result the index trimmed day’s losses to a greater extent.

Topline Securities Ltd said the equity market experienced a negative trend, with sellers entering the market. Millat Tractors Ltd, Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd, Hub Power, Lucky Cement and Pakistan Petroleum contributed 187 points collectively to the index performance.

The KSE-100 index closed at 63,202.40 points after losing 364.93 points or 0.57 per cent from the preceding session.

The overall trading volume, however, edged up 5.8pc to 445.79 million shares. The traded value plunged 23.37pc to Rs14.23bn on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included K-Electric Ltd (59.72m shares), Pakistan International Airlines Corporation Ltd (40.42m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (35.38m shares), Hascol Petroleum Ltd (33.33m shares) and Pakistan Tele­communication Company Ltd (25.69m shares).

Companies registering the biggest decreases in their share prices in absolute terms were Unilever Foods Ltd (Rs397.00), Pakistan Tobacco Company Ltd (Rs57.39), Pak Suzuki Motor Company Ltd (Rs49.71), Pakistan Hotels Developers Ltd (Rs32.75) and Siemens (Pakistan) Engineering (Rs29.28).

Shares registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Rafhan Maize Products Company Ltd (Rs149.00), Philip Morris (Rs55.09), National Foods Ltd (Rs8.37), Bata Pakistan Ltd (Rs7.11) and Haleon Pakistan Ltd (Rs5.74).

Foreign investors rem­ained net sellers as they sold out shares worth $0.02m.

Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2024