Pakistan equities decline by 248 points on policy meeting rumors

KARACHI: Pakistan equities fell by 248 points on Thursday owing to rumors of an emergent meeting of monetary policy committee.

The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) ended 41,079 points from previous day’s closing of 41,327 points, showing a decline of 248 points.

Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that a range bound session was witnessed at PSX during the day.

The KSE-100 index opened in green, but rumors of emergent policy meeting kept the index choppy and traded in narrow range throughout the day as investor participation remained sluggish.

However in the last trading hour profit selling were observed across the board which led the index to close in the red. Decent volumes were recorded across the board.

Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P’s (-106.4 points), Cement (-41.4 points), Power Generation & Distribution (-24.6 points), Inv. Banks / Inv. Cos. / Securities Cos. (-23.2 points), and Textile Composite (-18.4 points).

Volumes increased from 137.4 million shares to 141.9 million shares (+3.3 per cent DoD). The average traded value also increased by 22.1 per cent to USD 28.1 million as against USD 23.0 million.

Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes are WTL, MLCF, MEBL, OGDC & TRG.