KARACHI: The bears continued to hold sway at Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) as the benchmark index ended the first day of the week with a fall of 519 points, below the 43,000 level for the first time since March.
The investors are keeping a close eye on the monetary announcement scheduled tomorrow, as they expect the central bank to raise the policy rate by 150 basis points.
Constant depreciation of the rupee against the US dollar coupled with concerns over the mini-budget kept market trading in a narrow range throughout the day. Adding fuel to the fire, the confirmation of Pakistan’s first-ever Omicron case took a toll on investor sentiment.
Earlier, trading began on a positive note, however, the lack of positive triggers pulled the KSE-100 index into negative territory within the first hour. During the day, the index hit an intraday low of 42,806.68, recording a downward movement of 589.10 points. The index settled lower by 519.41 points or 1.20% at 42,876.37.
Sectors dragging the benchmark index downwards included technology and communication (152.01 points), banking (80.09 points), and oil and gas exploration (76.13 points).
Volume decreased clocking in at 150.39 million on the all-shares index, down from 179.17 million on Friday. The value of shares traded also declined to Rs5.27 billion on Monday.
WorldCall Telecom was the volume leader with 18.33 million shares, followed by Byco Petroleum with 7.30 million shares, and Fatima Fertilizer at 7.00 million shares.
Shares of 331 companies were traded on Monday, of which 65 registered an increase, 250 recorded a fall, and 16 remained unchanged.
