Shares plunge 352 points as economic uncertainty weighs down sentiment

Shares at the Pakistan Stock Exchange ended the day in the red on Tuesday, with the benchmark KSE-100 index facing resistance at the 40,000 mark, closing at 39,802.91 — down 352 points or 0.88 per cent. Fahad Rauf of Ismail Iqbal Securities said the investor sentiment was generally weak due to the delay in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme. “However, specifically, today the fertilizers stocks were under pressure due to news regarding GIDC (Gas Infrastructure Development Cess) recovery,” he told Dawn.com. 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. “Examining the court’s decisions and stay orders, the finance minister expressed serious concerns over the non-recoveries of GIDC dues and expressed the resolve of the government to recover each penny from the defaulters,” an official statement had said.