Pakistan stocks dip by 111 points on policy rate hike speculations

Pakistan stocks on Monday declined by 111 points as investors opted to sideline due to policy rate hike speculations.

The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) ended 39,890 points as compared with last Friday’s closing of 40,001 points, showing a decline of 111 points.

Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that a mixed session was recorded at the PSX to kick off the business week.

The market opened in the green zone, but lack of investor involvement drove the index down into the red zone, where it remained for the rest of the trading session, swinging in both directions and eventually closing in the red.

Due to speculation of a policy rate hike in the Monetary Policy Committee meeting tomorrow, investors chose to stay on the sidelines.

Volumes in the mainboard dried up, while third-tier companies continued to dominate the volume board.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Cement (-46.0 points), Fertilizer (-28.2 points), Commercial Banks (-27.4 points), OMCs (-21.1 points), and Automobile Assembler (-19.3 points).

Volumes decreased from 112.2 million shares to 74.4 million shares (-33.7 per cent DoD). The average traded value also decreased by -55.5 per cent to USD 6.2 million as against USD 13.8 million.

Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes are TELE, WTL, PAEL, BOP and PIBTL.