Unprecedented panic-selling wipes out 4,795 points

Equities fell like ninepins on heightened nervousness amid rising political noise and missile programme-related US sanctions on Pakistani companies, sending investors rushing off to dump stocks and book profit for the third straight session on Thursday, inflicting an unprecedented single-day loss to the benchmark KSE 100 index. In contrast to the global market performance, the local bourse witnessed extreme volatility as a lack of triggers and selling by jittery investors saw the stocks cave in like a house of cards across all sectors. Initially, the KSE-100 index briefly touched the day’s high of 111,745.03 after gaining 674.73 points but failed to sustain the rally and plunged 5,132.92 points to 105,937.37. By the session’s close, the index had witnessed record bleeding of 4,795.31 points or 4.32pc to settle at 106,274.98 points.