Ahead of monetary policy announcement, KSE-100 loses 635 points as market divided

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Wednesday ended lower by 635 points as investors resorted to profit-taking ahead of the upcoming monetary policy meeting.

The KSE-100 started the session positive, hitting an intra-day high of 79,507.18.

However, like most recent sessions, profit-taking in the latter hours pushed the index into the negative territory.

At close, the benchmark index settled at 78,651.80, down by 634.94 points or 0.80%.

Investors chose to do profit-taking in selective stocks of E&P, banking, and fertiliser sectors, brokerage house Topline Securities said in its post-market report.

Resultantly, MARI, BAHL, MCB, MEBL & EFERT lost 315 points, cumulatively. On the flip side, OGDC, DAWH & PAEL collectively added 54 points as they witnessed some buying interest in them, it added.

On Tuesday, however, the PSX had witnessed a bullish session, fuelled by late-session buying that lifted the benchmark KSE-100 Index by 672 points amid hopes of a policy rate cut in the monetary policy meeting scheduled for Thursday, September 12.

Fauji Fertilizer Company (FFC), one of Pakistan’s largest fertilizer producers, expressed its intention to acquire shares and control of Agritech Limited.

The development was announced by Agritech Limited, engaged in the production and sale of urea and granulated single super phosphate fertiliser, in a notice to the PSX on Wednesday.

Globally, major stock markets and the dollar diverged on Wednesday before US inflation data that could help indicate the size of an expected interest-rate cut from the Federal Reserve next week.

In Europe, London’s share-price gains were capped in midday deals by official data showing Britain’s economy stalled in July.

Paris and Frankfurt grew by bigger amounts as investors in the eurozone geared up for the European Central Bank’s interest-rate decision Thursday.

Asia’s main equity indices closed lower with a strong yen weighing on Tokyo’s market, while Chinese stocks were knocked by concerns over China’s struggling economy, analysts said.

The US consumer price index later in the day will be pored over for an insight into the Fed’s rate decision on September 18 and what it could mean for the global economy.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee registered a marginal improvement against the US dollar, appreciating 0.03% in the inter-bank market on Wednesday. At close, the currency settled at 278.54, a gain of Re0.08 against the US dollar.

Volume on the all-share index increased to 532.73 million from 509.49 million on Tuesday.

The value of shares rose to Rs14.73 billion from Rs13.76 billion in the previous session.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 80.93 million shares, followed by Pak Elektron with 42.59 million shares, and Waves Home App with 34.02 million shares.

Shares of 439 companies were traded on Wednesday, of which 178 registered an increase, 206 recorded a fall, while 55 remained unchanged.