Stocks tumble on circular debt confusions

The benchmark of representative shares demonstrated a puzzling trend on Thursday as trading began on a high note. Topline Securities said the KSE-100 index carried forward the bullish mome­ntum from a day ago and made an intraday high of 395 points or 0.82 per cent. However, an unexpected and across-the-board sell-off in the latter half of the session disrupted the market momentum. As a result, the benchmark index lost its gains recorded early in the day. In fact, the index slipped into the negative territory and ultimately closed the day below the 48,000-point psychological level. The brokerage attributed the selling spree to the “no official confirmation” from the International Monetary Fund or the Ministry of Finance either with respect to the news that the Washington-based lender had green-lighted the circular debt management plan. As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 47,808.34 points, down 419.26 points or 0.87pc from the preceding session. The overall trading volume increased 3.2pc to 322.2 million shares. The traded value decreased 10.8pc to Rs12.7bn on a day-on-day basis.