The local bourse was under the weather. The KSE-100 index dropped 24 points to close at 12,353 points with volumes settling at the 63 million mark.
The fertiliser quartet of FFC, FFBL, Engro and Fatima, which were the stars of last week’s bull run were all in the red zone today with Engro seeing a 2.4 percent decline from its weekend’s closing price. PSMC, on the other hand, experienced a five percent surge on news that the Punjab government will be re-launching the Yellow cab scheme and utilising PSMC’s Mehran and Bolan models to support the scheme.
Today’s lackluster trading session could be the trend setter for the rest of the week as the market’s budgetary hype finally cools to face economic reality. Fierce selling in various high priced stocks, facing a tough scenario due to high input costs and faced with heavy debt, led the decline duly followed by other high priced stocks from various sectors due to prolonged stagnation and absence of buyers on dips.
This pushed the benchmark in deep red with various events of low volume price erosion being prominent feature, while nervousness soon spilled from front line stocks towards various mid tier stocks. A decline in international cotton rates, gas curtailment, high debt and ballooning circular debt remained major concerns for the stake holders, thus keeping even listed stocks of local financial groups under severe pressure. However, the impact of the negative trend was limited on the benchmark.