KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Market (PSX) on Wednesday ended the day on a negative note amid the worsening health situation in the country.
The KSE 100 index surged in early trading and reached its highest level of 47,874.69 points in intra-day trading. The bourse remained steady but eventually began to slide before ending on a negative note before trading was suspended. The bourse ended with a decline of 368.96 (-0.77%) and closed at 47,318.03 points. The total volume of shares was 128.927 million valued at Rs6.501 bn.
The lower-bench KSE 30 index also decreased by 155.31 (-0.81%) points and closed at 18,974.30 points. The total volume of shares was 37.583 million. The KMI 30 index declined by 593.02 points (-0.77%) and closed at 76,447.15 points, while the All-Share Index declined by 220.33 points (-0.68%) and closed at 32,308.28 points.
The share prices of most stocks slumped as investors dumped stocks. The stock was by World Call Ltd (WTL -4.55%) which saw 40.378 million shares traded at the stock market. This was followed by Byco Petroleum (BYCO -1.59%), Telecard Ltd (TELE -1.39%), and Unity Food Ltd (UNITY -5.50%) The total volume of scripts was 26.892 million, 13.225 million, and 12.449 million respectively.
A day earlier, in line with market expectations, the central bank left the benchmark interest rate unchanged at 7% for the next two months to keep the cost of borrowing from banks at a low level and let the economy grow by 4-5% in the current fiscal year.
It was the sixth consecutive bi-monthly monetary policy statement (MPS) in which the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) maintained the policy rate despite higher inflation and recent rupee depreciation. The country is currently witnessing a fourth wave of the pandemic as the infection ratio has jumped to 30% in Karachi. The health crisis and the likely imposed imposition of a lockdown have dampened the mood at the stock market.
On the economic front, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) revised up its projection for Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate to 3.9%. In its World Economic Outlook report 2021, the IMF said projections are revised up for the Middle East and Central Asia due to robust activity in some countries such as Pakistan.
