KARACHI: On the eve of a crucial monetary policy decision for the next two months, the stock market faltered on renewed fears of political uncertainty and a new IMF condition, pushing the KSE index below 79,000 amid aggressive foreign selling on Wednesday.

Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said stocks closed sharply lower on political uncertainty and cautious activity ahead of the State Bank of Pakistan’s monetary policy announcement amid high expectations of a third straight but significant cut in the policy rate, which trade and industry players believe is direly needed to revive economic activities.

He added that weak global equities, uncertainty over legislation ahead of privatisation of state-owned enterprises and concerns over the new IMF condition of putting a bar on new industrial, special economic and export processing zones, dep­ressed the investor sentiments about the economic outlook.

Foreign investors turned net sellers as they offloaded shares worth $2.26m.

In its review, Topline Securities said the equity market moved in both directions as bullish and bearish forces confronted throughout the session to take the helm at PSX. However, bears emerged as a winner.

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Investors chose to do profit-taking in selective stocks of exploration and production, bank and fertiliser sectors.

Mari Petroleum, Bank Al-Habib, MCB Bank, Meezan Bank and Engro Fertiliser cumulatively wiped out 315 points from the index. Conversely, Oil and Gas Development Company, Dawood Hercules and Pak Elektron collectively added 54 points.

As a result, the KSE index hit an intraday high of 79,507.18 and a low of 78,612.17. However, it settled at 78,651.74 after losing 634.94 points or 0.80pc day-on-day.

The trading volume improved by 4.56pc to 532.73 million shares, and the traded value increased by 7.06pc to Rs14.73bn day-on-day.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included WorldCall Telecom (80.92m shares), Pak Elektron (42.59m shares), Waves Home Appl­i­ances (34.02m shares), Kohinoor Spinning Mills Ltd (32.24m shares) and Secure Logistics (17.40m shares).

The shares registering the most significant increases in their prices in absolute terms were Unilever Foods(Rs23.01), Bata Pakistan(Rs18.54), Hal­eon Pakistan (Rs15.65), Honda Atlas Pak (Rs13.30) and JDW Sugar Mills (Rs11.99).

The companies that suffered major losses in their share prices in absolute terms were Hallmark Co (Rs93.03), Mari Petroleum (Rs82.86), Hoechst Pak­istan (Rs69.23), Rafhan Maize (Rs37.99) and Sapphire Fibres(Rs28.66).

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2024