Karachi - Pakistan stocks slumped by more than 4 per cent Monday on bleak economic outlook and lack of investor interest, traders said.

The key KSE-100 index shed 497 points to close at 12,444 amid low volume, showing lack of interest among foreign and domestic investors unable to find any triggers to jump in the market.

"The trading volume of around 80 million shares is far less than the average 253 million shares a day," said Atteq Ahmed, dealer at Capital One Equities.

Ahmed said there was low interest by investors waiting for any positive news for the upcoming fiscal 2008-09 that runs from July to June.

Finance Minister Naveed Qamar announced the government budget last week in parliament, and presenting a bleak economic outlook.

The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund project that Pakistan will have a low growth of around 3.5 per cent in 2008-09.

Pakistan has recorded more than 7 per cent gross domestic product growth during the last eight years, thanks to billions of dollars in US aid after the 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, when it agreed to be a close ally of the US against extremists.

Rumours that the government plans to withdraw all its deposits from the public and private banks to keep in the central State Bank of Pakistan also triggered selling pressures in the financial equities.

Qamar last week hinted transfer of billions of rupees of government deposits into the central bank. However, the government later denied that any such move was in the cards. (dpa)