Share prices sink heavily at Pakistan Stock Exchange as IMF team lands

Share prices at Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) took a deep plunge on Monday despite the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has summoned the Monetary Policy Committee meeting and an IMF review mission has landed in the country, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

The benchmark KSE-100 index ended the day with a loss of 1,264.78 points or 1.13 percent to 111,986.88 points as compared to previous close of 113,251.67 points.

Of the total 437 companies traded on Monday, share prices of 287 companies declined while 85 went up with 65 unchanged.

Selling pressure was witnessed across key sectors including automobile assemblers, cement, chemical, oil and gas exploration companies, OMCs and refinery. Index-heavy stocks including OGDC, PPL, MARI, PSO, SSGC and WAFI were traded in the red.

Experts said shares worth only Rs18 billion were traded on the first day of Ramazan, as market activity remained subdued due to shorter trading hours, but the investors were now more focused on the upcoming IMF review.

During the previous week, the PSX had remained in the green zone driven by improved local liquidity and positive investor sentiment. The index had gained 451 points on a week-on-week basis. 

The investors had remained cautious throughout the last month and opted to take profits at available margins. A successful IMF review would lead to the release of the second tranche, which the country direly needed to meet its external debt repayment obligations.
The State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) foreign exchange reserves had also recorded an uptick of $21 million to $11.2 billion.

The State Bank has also summoned its MPC meeting on March 10 with reports saying that the central is likely to slash the policy rate by another 50bpt.

Reporter Ashraf Khan