ISLAMABAD, June 8: Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed on Wednesday described as baseless rumours about Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz’s resignation which led to a slide by 250 points of Karachi Stock Exchange’s 100-share index. Mr Rashid told journalists that the rumour was a figment of speculators’ imagination.

Stock market is like politics in Pakistan, said the minister, which could fall a hundred points with the falling of a tree in Lyari, implying that those searching for causes of the decline ought to look elsewhere.

His explanation for the rumour was that there was shortage of news and newspapers needed to fill space.

The Karachi Stock Exchange recovered later in the afternoon but the KSE index still closed 128 points down at 7263.