KARACHI: The stock market remained jittery in the outgoing week even though Pakistan successfully repaid its $1 billion international bond before time and Saudi Arabia extended its $3bn deposits to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

Arif Habib Ltd said the stock market remained under pressure mainly due to the uncertainty over the International Monetary Fund (IMF) deal and political noise.

However, the benchmark index turned positive midweek as Russia agreed to sell oil to Pakistan at a discounted price. Still this positive momentum did not sustain.

Furthermore, foreign exchange reserves of the SBP showcased a decline of $784 million, hitting a nearly four-year low of $6.72bn. The rupee also depreciated 0.23 per cent during the outgoing week against the greenback and hit 224.4

As a result, the KSE-100 index closed at 42,150 points, down 452 points or 1.1pc from a week ago.

Sector-wise, negative contributions came from cement (109 points), power generation and distribution (61 points), pharmaceutical (60 points), technology and communication (57 points) and automobile assembling (45 points).

Sectors that contributed positively were miscellaneous (131 points) automobile parts and accessories (three points).

According to AKD Securities, the shares market is expected to remain range-bound in the near future as investors worry about dwindling foreign exchange reserves of the country.

Political uncertainty and any developments regarding the IMF loan will also be a factor affecting the sentiments in the stock market, it added.

Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2022