KARACHI: Bulls dominated the stock market as soon as the opening bell rang in the outgoing week, thanks to the news reports about Saudi Arabia seeking to renew its $3 billion deposits along with providing Pakistan with additional support for the procurement of petroleum products worth $100 million per month, said Arif Habib Ltd in its weekly commentary on the Pakistan Stock Exchange.

Furthermore, LSM data showed there was a jump of 11.7 per cent in big-industry production on a year-on-year basis in 2021-22.

However, profit-taking kic­ked in mid-week while the announcement of the impo­sition of potentially Rs50bn new taxes also weak­e­ned the market sentiment.

Moreover, the rupee once again witnessed some depr­eciation against the dollar in the outgoing week.

Yet the benchmark of the stock market closed in the green zone at 43,270 points, up 413 points or 0.96pc on a week-on-week basis.

The monetary policy is due on Monday and, according to analysts at AKD Securities, the policy rate may increase 50-100 basis points. “The monetary policy decision is likely to drive the market’s momentum in the coming week…”

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2022