The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) remained bearish ahead of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting on Monday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index shedding 94.37 points (-0.21 percent) to close at 44,923.91 points. The market witnessed a low-volume, dull and range-bound trading session. It switched between the green and red territories during the first one-and-a-half-hour minutes of the session and then remained negative for the rest of the session.
A current account deficit of $9 billion for the first half of the ongoing fiscal year, rising import bill, soaring energy and commodity prices globally also weighed down on investors’ confidence, besides uncertainty about interest rate ahead of the MPC meeting. However, as expected, the State Bank of Pakistan held the policy rate unchanged at 9.75 percent, which is likely to provide a positive trigger to the market on Tuesday, as the MPC meeting concluded after the end of the Monday session.
The KSE-100 Index moved in a range of 247.09 points, showing an intraday high of 45,044.51 points and a low of 44,797.42 points.TLTP