The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed a buying frenzy on Monday, as its benchmark KSE-100 Index soared by over 1% ahead of the monetary policy announcement.
Announced after the trading session, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) kept the key policy rate unchanged at 22%.
On Monday, the KSE-100 largely remained in the positive territory throughout the session. At close, it settled at 51,482.93, up by 539.09 points or 1.06%.
During the day, power, fertiliser, cement, and banking sector stocks contributed positively as HUBC, DAWH, LUCK, UBL, and MEBL cumulatively added 267 points, brokerage house Topline Securities stated in its post-market report.
On the other hand, HBL, BOP, and SYS experienced profit-taking, resulting in a combined loss of 68 points, it added.
A report from the brokerage house Ismail Iqbal Securities stated that equities remained positive on an expectation of an interest rate cut.
On Friday, a bearish trend had ruled the PSX, as the KSE-100 Index closed lower by 241 points. Investors had opted to offload their holdings in the rollover week.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee sustained losses for the sixth consecutive session against the US dollar as it depreciated 0.14% in the inter-bank market on Monday. As per the State Bank of Pakistan, the local unit settled at 280.95, a decrease of Re0.38.
In a relatable development, the central bank issued a no-objection certificate (NOC) to Habib Metropolitan Bank Limited, a subsidiary of Habib Bank AG Zurich – Switzerland, to establish a wholly-owned Exchange Company (EC). HMB shared this in a notice to the PSX.
Volume on the all-share index decreased to 286.6 million from 350.8 million a session before.
The value of shares increased to Rs11.4 billion from Rs10.6 billion in the previous session.
Pak Refinery remained the volume leader with 32.4 million shares, followed by B.O.Punjab with 20.3 million shares and WorldCall Telecom with 15.2 million shares.
Shares of 351 companies were traded on Monday, of which 232 registered an increase, 100 recorded a fall, while 19 remained unchanged.
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