KARACHI: Despite a series of interest rate cuts, a sharp contraction in the large-scale manufacturing (LSM) sector further jolted investor confidence in the economic outlook. As a result, equity prices continued receiving massive battering, pushing the benchmark KSE 100 index to drop below 114,000 on Thursday.

Topline Securities Ltd said the index settled at 113,837, reflecting a decrease of 659 points or 0.58 per cent, primarily driven by a lack of positive triggers and uncertainty surrounding the new US government strategy and its impact.

Major contributors to the negative movement included Fauji Fertiliser, Pakistan Petroleum, PSO, Mari Petroleum, and Millat Tractors, which together accounted for a loss of 392 points.

Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said stocks closed lower amid aweak economic outlook and concerns for dismal LSM performance, posting a 3.98pc negative growth in November and 1.3pc in 5MFY25.

He added that expectations over cautious SBP policy rate cut this month,rupee instability and ongoing political noise kept equity investors shaky.

Ali Najib, Head of Sales at Insight Securities, said the session began positively, with the index reaching an intraday high of 114,885 points, gaining389 points. However, market sentiment shifted after news broke regarding initiating dialogue between the establishment and senior opposition leadership. This development sparked uncertainty among investors, raising concerns aboutpotential challenges to the ruling coalition government and their policies.

Opting to the cautious mood, the investors remained watchful ahead of a critical judgment in the £190m Al-Qadir Trust case, scheduled for announ-cement on Friday morning.

However, the trading volume tumbled 28.81pc to 469.44 million shares while the traded value plunged 36.98pc to Rs24.98bn dayon-day.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included WorldCall Telecom (103.70m shares), Cnergyico PK (37.10m shares), Dewan Farooque (19.33m shares), Pakistan Refinery (17.62m shares) and Fauji Foods (16.11m shares).

The shares registering the most significant increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Unilever Foods (Rs135.00), Supernet Techno (Rs37.00), Al-Abbas Sugar (Rs20.12), The Premier Sugar (Rs19.10) and Indus Motor Company (Rs15.81).

The companies registering significant decreases in their share prices in absolute terms were Hoechst Pakistan (Rs116.75), Bata Pakistan (Rs37.82), Abbott Lab (Rs24.31), Premium Textile (Rs23.77) and Millat Tractors (Rs23.48).