Stocks at Karachi Stock Exchange close 158 points down to 7,271

Posted on April 29, 2009

KARACHI: Stocks at Karachi Stock Exchange fell sharply on Wednesday amid mounting concerns about insecurity as the army fought to drive Taliban fighters out of a key northwestern valley. During the morning, troops secured the main town in Buner valley, just 100 km (60 miles) northwest of Islamabad, but several hundred militants are holding out in the mountainous region. The Karachi Stock Exchange benchmark KSE-100 Index ended 2.14 percent, or 158.78 points lower at 7,271.30 points on turnover of 152.5 million shares. Losers beat gainers 242 to 95. The index has gained about 24 percent this year after losing 58.3 percent in 2008. Dealers said healthy corporate results announced in recent days have failed to raise investor confidence, as worries about Pakistan’’s potential for instability spread inside the country and abroad. The central bank cut its discount rate, the key policy rate, by 100 basis points to 14 percent for the rest of the fiscal year ending on June 30 on lower inflation.