KARACHI - Stocks fell across the board on Wednesday on investor concerns on prevailing political unrest in the country.
The bench mark KSE-100 Index shed 166.62 points or 0.57 per cent and to close end of the day at 29157.98 points as compared to 29324 points on last trading session on Tuesday. Activity remained sluggish amid concerns for rising circular debt in energy sector impacting international payments for oil import by OMCs.
GIDC concessions approved by Finance Ministry failed to support cement, fertilizer and textile stocks as bears continue to impact the sentiments, comments the equity market analyst Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp.
The KSE-All share index declined by 124.26 points or 0.57 per cent and concluded at end of the day at 21587.48 points as compared to 21711.74 points previous day, KSE-30 index drop by 111.02 points or 0.55 percent and closed at 20059.73 points, while KMI-30 index fell by 237.09 points or 0.50 per cent and concluded at 46915.70 points at end of the day. Market experts believed that proposed reduction in GIDC for captive power from Rs300/mmbtu to Rs150/mmbtu will decrease the operating cost of sector that have dependence on captive power generation mainly textile and cement. The decrease in GIDC for IPPs and WAPDA/KEL/GENCO will decrease the electricity generation cost and ultimately benefit in the form of reduced circular debt pilling.