KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed a volatile session on Tuesday and the benchmark KSE-100 index facing resistance at the 40,000 mark, closing at 39,802.91 — down 352 points or 0.88 percent.
Further fuel was poured to the fire by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) delaying the next review of Pakistan’s economy.
Today the fertilizers stocks were under pressure due to news regarding GIDC (Gas Infrastructure Development Cess) recovery.
On Monday, the government had decided to use all the administrative and legal resources to recover Rs447 billion GIDC from commercial and industrial entities that had blocked due payments through high courts despite standing orders of the Supreme Court of Pakistan for recoveries.
The KSE-100 Index was down 352.25 points or 0.88% at 39,802.91 at the end of the day.
KSE-100 rises 1.23% as the government attempts to cut circular debt.
The market spiked up at the start of trading, but it was unable to maintain the upswing and started falling by midday. In the dying hours, the decline quickened and increased the losses.
Index-heavy cement, chemical and banking segments closed in the red while automobile sector closed mixed.
A report from Capital Stake said that taking a U-turn from previous session, the PSX closed the session on Tuesday in red.
Sectors painting the benchmark KSE-100 index in red included fertilizer (74.16 points), banking (71.21 points) and miscellaneous (62.50 points).
Volume on the all-share index rose to 153.7 million from 146.9 million on Monday. The value of shares traded increased to Rs5.54 billion from Rs5.13 billion recorded in the previous session.
Bank Al-Falah was the volume leader with 16.4 million shares, followed by Pakistan Petroleum with 12.5 million shares, and Bank of Punjab with 7.7 million shares.
Shares of 322 companies were traded on Tuesday, of which 98 registered an increase, 212 recorded a fall, and 12 remained unchanged.
