The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed a bearish session ahead of the monetary policy decision by the central bank that eventually maintained the status quo as it made the announcement after market-close, as the benchmark KSE-100 index slipped 0.21%.
The index was unable to sustain the 45,000-point level, falling to an intra-day low of 44,797 as investors adopted a wait-and-see approach.
At close on Monday, the KSE-100 finished at 44,923.91, a loss of 94.37 points or 0.21%.
KSE-100 breaks losing streak, finishes above 45,000
“The index swayed both ways in search of a direction as investors adopted a cautious approach ahead of the Monetary Policy Announcement,” said Capital Stake in a post-market comment.
“The MPC was of the view that current real interest rates on a forward-looking basis are appropriate to guide inflation to the medium-term range of 5-7%, support growth, and maintain external stability. If future data outturns require a fine-tuning of monetary policy settings, the MPC expected that any change would be relatively modest,” the SBP said in a statement after the announcement.
AKD Securities said that the SBP maintaining status quo will likely be a non-event for the market.
“The IMF Board is scheduled to take up Pakistan's case for resumption of the program on Jan 28, paving for disbursement of US$1bn tranche but more importantly, providing credence to government’s macro policies for Eurobond issuance currently in planning stage and is another important determinant for currency outlook with commodities (particularly oil) likely to remain elevated in the short term.
“IMF program resumption is likely to be a catalyst for a strong run in stock market,” it said.
On the corporate front, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has appointed Parker Russel AJS- Chartered Accountants as investigators for "carrying out serious fraud investigation/forensic audit of Hascol Petroleum Limited".
Volumes decreased, clocking in at 160.21 million on the all-share index, down from 176.13 million on Friday. The value of shares traded decreased substantially to Rs5.74 billion, down from Rs7.07 billion a day ago.
Cyergico Pakistan was the volume leader with 25.46 million shares, followed by TRG Pakistan Limited with 21.13 million shares, and Hascol Petroleum Limited with 11.83 million shares.
Shares of 325 companies were traded on Monday, of which 96 registered an increase, 214 recorded a fall, and 15 remained unchanged.
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