KARACHI: The stock market plunged by 714 points on Monday owing to uncertainty on monetary policy that is scheduled to be announced tomorrow.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 32,958 points as against 33,672 points showing a decline of 714 points.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market witnessed a significant decline of around 750 points during the session that is caused by uncertainty on monetary policy.
As per revised schedule, SBP is set to announce monetary policy tomorrow, where consensus estimate is for a hike of 100 basis points. An interest rate hike in line with expectation will increase the policy rate to 13.25 percent. Slowdown in economy amid recent protest of traders has caused negative sentiment amongst investors.
Major volumes were observed in Cement Sector to the tune of 11.5 million shares, followed by Banks (7.5 million) and Technology (7.2 million) Sectors. MLCF topped the chart with 5.5 million, followed by TRG (5.3 million) and KEL (3.2 million).
Sectors contributing to the performance include Fertilizer (-135 points), E&P (-115 points), Banks (-83 points), Power (-72 points), O&GMCs (-67 points).
Volumes increased by from 55.5 million shares to 69 million shares (+24 percent DoD). Average traded value increased by merely 3 percent to reach US$ 14.7 million as against US$ 14.3 million.
Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include MLCF, TRG, KEL, BOP and UNITY, which formed 31 percent of total volumes.
Stocks that contributed positively include FABL (+5 points), ATLH (+4 points), HBL (+1 points), FHAM (+0 points) and AKBL (+0 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include PPL (-56 points), HUBC (-49 points), ENGRO (-47 points), FFC (-45 points) and OGDC (-30 points).
