Stocks end lower after attacks

Karachi: Pakistan stocks ended more than 1.6 per cent lower after militants attacked an office of the country's main security agency in Multan where nine people were killed, officials said.

The Karachi Stock Exchange KSE benchmark 100-share index ended 1.66 per cent, or 148.95 points, lower at 8,843.96 on turnover of 70.3 million shares.

"The market saw institutional selling as there have been three militant attacks in different parts of the country," said Asad Iqbal, managing director at Ismail Iqbal Securities Ltd.

The Multan attack, and a Monday evening attack in Lahore, near the Indian border in which 49 people were killed, will compound fears that the militants were pushing their campaign out of the northwest. Dealers said that had made investors nervous. A suicide bomber struck in Peshawar earlier on Monday.