The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) turned negative on Tuesday and the KSE-100 Index shed 0.67% after the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) preponed the announcement of its monetary policy committee meeting.

The central bank on Tuesday announced that the monetary policy committee will meet on Thursday to announce the revision in interest rate. The market expects the MPC to jack up the interest rate.

By the end of the trading session, the benchmark index was down 273.76 points or 0.67% to close at 40,510.37.

KSE-100 Index rises 0.19% in mixed session

Trading began with a dip and the market maintained the decline for the rest of the session. Few attempts, made to prop the market upward, proved futile.

A report from Arif Habib Limited stated that a negative session was witnessed at PSX.

“The index opened with positive numbers but sentiments quickly shifted in support of bears as the market proceeded to trade in a red zone during most of the trading session,” it said.

“An anticipated rate hike in the upcoming monetary policy and political instability drove the index down to hit an intraday low of -347.77 points as investors’ chose to remain cautious while trading and kept on hunting for value stocks with high dividend yield, whereas decent volumes were observed across the board.”

A report from Capital Stake stated that bears carried the day at the PSX on Tuesday.

“Indices traded in red for most part of the day while volumes fell form last close,” it said. “Investors chose to retreat as SBP announced an earlier date for its monetary policy meeting in which the interest rate is expected to increase.”

On the economic front, rupee fell 0.6% or Rs1.58 to close at 261.5.

Sectors painting the benchmark KSE-100 index in red included oil and gas exploration (150.11 points), technology and communication (95.29 points) and oil and gas marketing companies (42.14 points).

Volume on the all-share index fell to 126.3 million from 158.1 million on Monday. The value of shares decreased to Rs5.64 billion from Rs5.72 billion recorded in the previous session.

WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 18.5 million shares followed by Oil and Gas Development Company with 5.3 million shares and TPL Properties with 4.5 million shares.

Shares of 334 companies were traded on Tuesday, of which 82 registered an increase, 234 recorded a fall and 18 remained unchanged.