KSE-100 closes week in the red as market awaits MPC decision

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) ended the final session of the week on a losing note as investors remained uncertain over the upcoming decision on the policy rate with the benchmark KSE-100 losing nearly 250 points on Friday.

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the central bank is scheduled to meet on Monday (March 18) to decide about the key interest rate. The policy rate is currently at a record high of 22%.

Throughout the trading session, the market maintained a downward trajectory while both volume and value of shares traded declined on a day-to-day basis.

At close, the index settled at 64,816.46, a decrease of 247.80 points or 0.38%.

On a weekly basis, the benchmark index settled lower by 977.29 points, as compared to 65,793.76 last week.

At close on Thursday, the PSX witnessed a turnaround, as the KSE-100 gained on value-hunting as investors cherry-picked holdings, pushing the benchmark index beyond the 65,000 level to settle with a gain of 1,015.82 points or 1.59%.

In a key development, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Pakistan kick-started talks on Thursday during the second and last review of Pakistan’s ongoing bailout program, its finance ministry said.

As per the statement, IMF and Islamabad discussed Pakistan’s overall macro-economic indicators, efforts on fiscal consolidation, structural reforms, energy sector viability, and state-owned entity governance.

Meanwhile, the rupee remained largely stable against the US dollar, appreciating 3 paise in the inter-bank market on Friday. At close, the local unit settled at 278.74, up by 0.01%, as per the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

Volume on the all-share index decreased to 259.37 million from 315.24 million a session ago.

The value of shares dropped to Rs10.12 billion from Rs10.48 billion in the previous session.

Hascol Petroleum was the volume leader with 56.95 million shares, followed by Cnergyico PK with 19.64 million shares, and WorldCall Telecom with 16.55 million shares.

Shares of 322 companies were traded on Friday, of which 113 registered an increase, 192 recorded a fall, while 17 remained unchanged.