KARACHI: Pakistan stocks continued to dip in Wednesday’s trade amid panic selling in the market, as border tensions escalated following Pakistan’s retaliatory action to intrusion by Indian aircraft into the Pakistani airspace a day ago.
The benchmark KSE-100 index shed a further 1,107.60 points to reach 37,714.07 shortly after noon, registering a decline of 2.94 percent as panic prevailed on the trade floor. It had lost 785 points to close at 38,821 on Tuesday.
According to market watchers, Tuesday’s dip was the largest decrease in the last 55 trading days and the first time in 32 sessions that the index had dropped below 39,000 points.
Topline Securities, a brokerage house, in a report said the market fell amid concerns of increased tensions between India and Pakistan, after the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) confirmed Indian military jets violated Pakistan’s airspace.
“Though Indian’s claim of attacking a terrorist camp inside Pakistan was refuted by Pakistan’s official sources, the damage was mainly seen in Pakistan’s market,” the brokerage house said.
The incursion into the Pakistani air space followed a series of threats by Indian political and military leadership after the attack on an Indian Army convoy at Pulwama by a local youth, in reaction to the oppression unleashed by the occupational forces.
Pakistan Air Force, in retaliatory action, shot down two Indian aircraft within the Pakistani airspace and arrested two Indian pilots, one in injured condition.
