Karachi  - Pakistani stocks slid for a fourth trading session Tuesday, falling 1.7 per cent by midday on persistent weak political and economic sentiment as analysts' opinions differed on the future outlook.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index of the Karachi Stock Exchange was down 218 points at 12,366. It has fallen more than 1,500 points in the past four trading sessions.

Some analysts predicted the index might go as low as 11,000 while some said they believe the market would take an upward turn.

"I think the market is now very oversold, and I see some upward direction led by oil, fertilizer and energy stocks," said Noman Zaheer, vice president at Arif Habib Securities.

But Saad Ahmed, head of research at Capital One Equities, said he believed the index might fall steadily toward 11,100.

"Our current account deficit, inflation and other economic fundamentals do not provide any immediate support to the market," Ahmed said.

The country's current account deficit soared to about 7.3 per cent of its gross domestic product during the first 10 months of the current fiscal year against the entire fiscal year target of 5 per cent mainly because of slow growth in exports, an increase in imports, rising international oil prices and sluggish foreign money inflows.

Overall, the current account deficit for the July-April period widened by 74.8 per cent to all-time high of 11.58 billion dollars. (dpa)