KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed selling pressure on Monday, with the benchmark index losing 660 points as Finance Minister Miftah Ismail leaves for Doha today to participate in talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The index remained jittery over concerns regarding monetary policy tightening which was to be announced after the session. After the close of the session, the central bank hiked the benchmark interest rate by 150 basis points, taking it to 13.75%.
A looming economic crisis and concerns over revival of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout also dented investor sentiments. Moreover, the Pakistani rupee remains in a downward spiral with the US dollar gaining another 0.39% on Monday to close at 200.93.
According to the PSX website, the KSE-100 Index opened at 43,100.71 points and immediately fell by over 400 points. At around 12:30pm, the benchmark had shed 526 points or 1.22 per cent. By the day’s end, the bourse had slid 660.46 points, or 1.53pc.
Sectors contributing to the performance included cement (-120.8 points), fertiliser (-89 points), exploration and production (-79.9 points), technology (-72.5 points), and banks (-63.1 points)
Shares of 314 companies were traded during the session. At the close of trading, 48 scrips closed in the green, 250 in the red, and 16 remained unchanged.
Overall trading volumes rose to 118.98 million shares compared with Friday’s tally of 189.92 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs3.57 billion.
Silk Bank was the volume leader with 9.97 million shares traded, gaining Rs0.04 to close at Rs1.32. It was followed by WorldCall Telecom with 7.62 million shares traded, losing Rs0.09 to close at Rs1.50 and K-Electric with 6.12 million shares traded, losing Rs0.08 to close at Rs2.50.
