KARACHI: Pakistan stocks remained depressed on Thursday due to fears of benchmark rate hike, analyst said.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) ended at 40,389 points from previous day’s closing of 41,168 points, showing a decline of 329 points.
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The analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that bears took charge at the stock market during the day after consecutive bullish sessions.
The benchmark KSE-100 opened in the red zone due to speculation of a policy rate hike in the coming days after yesterday’s treasury bills cutoff yields were at the higher side leading the index to plunge down and make an intraday low of -395.08 points.
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Prevailing political uncertainty kept the investors at bay, however across the board volumes remained healthy.
Sectors contributing to the performance include Commercial Banks (-80.4 points), E&P’s (-78.7 points), Technology & Communication (-48.5 points), Cement (-37.0 points), and OMCs. (-21.3 points).
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Volumes decreased from 196.5 million shares to 150.2 million shares (-23.5 per cent DoD). The average traded value also decreased by 9.7 per cent to USD 22.1 million as against USD 24.4 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes are WTL, MLCF, KAPCO, HUBC and DFML.
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