KSE-100 witnesses another dull session ahead of MPC announcement

The Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 Index endured a dull session on Thursday, inching up by only 59 points as investors remained on the sidelines ahead of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting.

The KSE-100 started slightly positive, hitting an intra-day high of 45,776.97. However, profit-taking curbed the gains.

At close, the benchmark index settled at 45,650.06, up by meagre 59.13 points or 0.13%.

“The index stayed within a relatively narrow range as investors kept a close eye on the outcome of the Monetary Policy Committee meeting scheduled for the day,” brokerage house Topline Securities stated in its post-market report.

Banks and auto stocks, including, DAWH, HMB, BAHL, PSEL and MTL, made a positive contribution today by adding 68 points. However, PAKT, NESTLE, and PKGS collectively lost 31 points, according to the brokerage house.

On Wednesday also, the KSE-100 Index closed slightly higher in a range-bound session.

Contrary to market expectations, the MPC of the State Bank of Pakistan on Thursday kept the key policy rate unchanged at 22%.

“As such, real interest rates continue to remain in positive territory on a forward-looking basis. Moreover, the expected ease in supply constraints owing to better agriculture output and the recent administrative measures against speculative activity in the FX and commodity markets would also support the inflation outlook,” the central bank said.

The decision of maintaining status quo may inject positivity in the stock market on Friday.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee continued to improve against the US dollar, appreciating for the seventh consecutive session to settle at 297.96 in the inter-bank market on Thursday.

After weakening a day ago, the domestic currency registered some improvement against the US dollar in the open market.

Volume on the all-share index increased to 138.173 million from 102.767 million on Wednesday.

The value of shares declined to Rs2.778 billion from Rs3.8 billion in the previous session.

K.Electric Ltd remained the volume leader with 18.08 million shares, followed by Al-Shaheer Corporation with 18.008 million shares and SEARLR2 with 16.376 million shares.

Shares of 316 companies were traded on Thursday, of which 148 registered an increase, 138 recorded a fall, and 30 remained unchanged.