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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
