KARACHI: Panic-stricken investors at the Pakistan stock exchange waited for the market to open, following which waves upon waves of sell orders battered prices all across the board.

The KSE-100 index sank 6.75 per cent, a new low in 18 years. It also beat the last massive fall of 6.59pc witnessed on Monday. Point-wise, the benchmark dipped 2,200.88 points and closed at 30,416.

In the last three sessions the index has plummeted by 5,645 points, representing an incredible 16.5pc, the highest three-day decline in history point-wise and in terms of percentage since 21.7pc slump on June 1998.

Trading was brought to a halt as the KSE-30 index made intraday low of 8.2pc a little while after. It was for the fifth time in eight days that trading was stopped for 45 minutes.

The cooling-off period was no help as investors kept selling after resumption.

On top of the fear and uncertainty over the coronavirus and its spread in the country, investors were left fuming by the State Bank monetary policy statement where a cut of a minimal 75 basis points was announced. It poured cold water on the expectations of analysts who were expecting the SBP to ease the policy rate by 100bps to 300bps.

The SBP also revised its real GDP target to 3pc as compared to 3.5pc announced in November, while the Moody’s also put down Pakistan’s real growth projection to 2.5pc from 2.9pc amid economic slowdown prompted by the novel virus.

Mutual funds were again major sellers of equity worth $8.70 million. The volume declined 23pc over the previous day to 186.7m shares while traded value also fell 53pc to reach $33.5m.

Stocks that dented the index most included Habib Bank, down 7.5pc, Engro Corporation 7.5pc, Hub Power 7.5pc, MCB 7.3pc, Fauji Fertiliser 7.3pc, Oil and Gas Development Company 7.5pc, United Bank 7.3pc, Lucky Cement 7.5pc and Pakistan Petroleum 7.5pc cumulatively wiping off 993 points.

Published in Dawn, March 19th, 2020