Pak stocks plummet 1000 points over anti-graft crackdown fears

The Karachi Stock Exchange index shed over 1,000 points today amidst reports of crackdown on stock market players over alleged corruption charges.
The KSE-100 index had shed over 1,000 points by midday and stood at 32,965 points a decline of some 2.7 per cent but at close the index of 100 shares had lost 2.67 percent or 905 points to close at 32,986 points.
"It was a bad day for investors today as a number of factors led to this plunge," market analyst Muhammad Salman of Capital investments said.
"The rumours that there would be a crackdown on brokers and market players by anti-corruption agencies and the overall scenario in the Asian stock markets led to the shedding of points," he said.

The KSE index had shed around 4.11 per cent last month amidst the turmoil in global and Asian markets mainly due to speculations generated by China's slowing economy.
"On Monday the stocks went down by three per cent at one stage but there was some revival in second half," another analyst said.

The KSE index had gone down by 556 points last week.
There is a considerable alarm in the business and political circles after Pakistani authorities embarked on an anti-corruption drive, with former Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who held office from 2008-2012, facing 24 graft charges.
Former petroleum minister Asim Hussain, a close aide to ex-president Asif Ali Zardari, was also remanded into the custody of Pakistan's Rangers paramilitary force over another corruption case.

The analyst said the KSE had been witnessing frequent panic selling of stocks by investors leading to a drop in share prices of nearly 276 stocks while only 23 showed appreciation.