Karachi: The Pakistan Stock Exchange ended trading on Monday with a negative trend, where investors adopted a cautious attitude ahead of the upcoming monetary policy decision. The benchmark KSE-100 index closed at 165,966.09 points after a decline of 453.63 points, or 0.27 percent.
The index witnessed volatility during the trading session, and its movement was in the range of about 780 points. Due to selling pressure in the market, the level of the previous session could not be maintained.
Investors are focused on the upcoming monetary policy meeting of the State Bank of Pakistan. Speculations regarding inflationary pressures and a possible hike in interest rates have affected the market trend. However, a final decision on the interest rate hike is yet to be taken, and expectations in this regard should not be interpreted as an official announcement.
Even after the staff-level agreement reached with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), economic policies and measures to control inflation remain important topics for investors. The IMF, in its recent review report, has emphasised the need to maintain a prudent monetary policy to keep inflation under control on a sustainable basis.
On the other hand, a total of 370.94 million shares were traded in the buying and selling of shares, worth about Rs 19.56 billion. A transaction of 396.90 million shares was recorded in the previous session.
The total value of the stock market also declined to about Rs 18.43 trillion, which represents a decrease of about Rs 52 billion compared to the previous level.
In the coming days, investors will focus on monetary policy decisions, inflation data and developments related to economic stability. Along with these factors, changes in global energy prices and external economic conditions may also affect the direction of Pakistan’s stock market.
