KARACHI: The stock market sank deeper into distress on Tuesday with the free fall of shares that resulted in the KSE-100 index crashing through the floor to record loss of 464.56 points (1.21 per cent).

The index closed below the 38,000 points for the first time since June 2016, at 37,919.42. Nervous investors were trapped in a vicious circle as loss gave way to panic which led to more losses.

`The government and the regulator must come forward to calm the market` said a stockbroker. The ray of hope was provided by the fact that the index had recouped 179 points off its intraday low of 37,768 points.

The volume surged 117pc over the previous day to 109m shares, while the traded value also soared toRs4.75bn. Foreign investors, institutions and individuals were all sellers but the `brokers proprietaryRs4.75bn. Foreign investors, institutions and individuals were all sellers but the `brokers proprietarytrading` was conspicuous by its heaviest sell-off valuing $5.62m.

Dawood Hercules wasdown 3.9pc, Sui Northern Gas Pipeline 4.9pc, Hub Power 2.1pc, Kot Addu Power 5pc and MariPetroleum 3.6pc, erasing 134 points from the index while HBL gained 1pc, UBL 1.3pc, Lucky Cement 1.2pc,Colgate Palmolive 3.3pc and PICIC Growth 5pc, adding 74 points.

Analysts at Elixir Securities stated that the major drag to the performance came from the energy sector as sentiments were dented after the prime minister advising the power ministry to completely phase out of furnace oil-based power generation going forward.

Kapco and National Refinery hit lower limit and Attock Refinery was down 4.7pc.

PSO that commands 75pc FO market share in the FO segment shed 2.8pc.

`In the banking sector there were some gainers as some value buyers entered to take advantage of weak price levels,` said JS Global.

Among other sectors, E&P shed 74 points, OMCs gave up 73 points, power and fertiliser were down 61 points and cement gave up 49 points and engineering shed 23 points.