Stocks shed 164 points on IMF review delay

KARACHI: Pakistan stocks fell by 164 points on Thursday due to delay in review of International Monetary Fund (IMF) program.

The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) ended at 42,820 points from previous day’s closing of 42,984 points, showing a gain of 164 points.

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

The market opened in the positive zone however, due to the rupee-dollar parity and delayed 10th review of the IMF Program snapped investors’ confidence resulting in the index losing 214.38 points at the intraday low and closing in the red.

Investor participation remained slow while 3rd tier scrips generated the most volumes.

Sectors contributing to the performance include Technology & Communication (-28.0 points), Oil & Gas Marketing Companies (-27.1 points), E&P’s (-25.2 points), Food & Personal Care Products (-18.8 points), Vanaspati & Allied Industries (-12.6 points).

Volumes decreased from 186.7 million shares to 181.2 million shares (-2.9 per cent DoD). The average traded value also decreased by 7.7 per cent to USD 27.7 million as against USD 29.9 million.

Stocks that contributed volumes significantly are BIPL, UNITY, TELE, GCIL, and WTL.