Stocks slide over grave Osama situation

KARACHI: Local equities fell at Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) as much as 2.6 percent on Wednesday on concerns that the killing of Osama bin Laden this week could lead to a delay in international aid.

The Karachi Stock Exchange's benchmark 100-share index was 2.05 percent, or 244.65 points, lower at 11712.25 on turnover of 58 million shares in afternoon trade.

The KSE-index has lost 2.8 percent since the killing of Osama Bin Laden. The index gained about 28 percent in 2010.

"There is concern that there may be delay of aid, especially from the IMF (International Monetary Fund) after news that visits of all missions have been cancelled," a stock broker said.

All missions of international financial institutions, including the IMF, World bank and Asian Development Bank had cancelled their visit to Pakistan on expected backlash from the killing of Osama bin Laden this week.

The IMF declined to comment and no one was available at the Finance Ministry.

Last month a senior IMF official said he hoped to send a team to Pakistan in the next couple of weeks to assess the progress, but said the fund has not decided yet when it is going to disburse the remaining two tranches of more than $3 billion from its total $11 billion in loans.

Pakistan is facing a financial crunch due to a widening fiscal deficit especially following the summer floods of 2010that caused damages amounting to $10 billion.